Everyone knows where they were and what they were doing when the two airplanes slammed into the World Trade Center towers on September 11, 2001. It was 20 years ago, and I was working for Sports Illustrated as an associate editor. The magazine had its headquarters in New York City. I worked mostly from my home in Florida, so I did what many people across the country and the world did: I watched the whole thing unfold on TV and shared the sense of shock and unreality as the towers fell and the smoke and ash rumbled down the streets of the greatest city on Earth. Then I worked furiously to connect with friends and colleagues who lived there.

With the first hint of fall coming unseasonably early this year, I find myself looking forward to the coming days as college football ramps up, major league baseball begins to knuckle down to the playoffs, and professional football, still my favorite league, gets underway. As I combed through ESPN for a little context to the upcoming season, a factoid grabbed my attention faster than you can say, “First and 10!”