Woody Johnson took his current players to the 9/11 Memorial and Museum (Getty Images)
Because it is so unguarded, that admission carries weight precisely. Just a man sitting in a dark room, watching families speak about the people they lost, and feeling the full weight of it hit him again. There is no prepared statement in that moment.
Johnson is a founding trustee of the 9/11 Memorial and Museum. “He goes, ‘I’ve lost 25 first responders, firemen and policeman friends today, and I’m not playing on Sunday. That moment from 2001 is still something former Jets players speak proudly about. Testaverde, reflecting on it 25 years later, said he remains proud of everyone involved for getting it right. His involvement goes back to 2014 when he donated $1 million to the organization’s Building for America’s Bravest program, which constructs smart homes for severely injured servicemembers. For Johnson, none of it is disconnected from that morning 25 years ago, or from the West Side Highway lined with 18-wheelers full of donations from across the country, or from standing at Ground Zero beside Jets players in the heat and smoke.
For a franchise owner who personally lost friends in the attacks and stood at the smoldering pit days after they happened, the 25th anniversary was never going to be just another date on a calendar.
“I think for the young guys that hadn’t seen it before, it was really a wake-up call to the meaning of what New York is, what being a New Yorker is,” he said. I didn’t think it would, but yeah, it really got to me,” he said. “Vinny really brought it home for the commissioner and me,” Johnson said. Join conversation Share your thoughts in the comments Be respectful · TOI community guidelines “Frank Siller started this amazing, amazing foundation for first responders,” Johnson said. “The first responders were heroes, but the average citizens were also heroes,” he said.
“And just how important New York is to the world. That context matters. Several players in that group were children when the towers fell, or not yet born into the realities of what that morning actually cost New York. Johnson’s decision to take them there was less about ceremony and more about grounding them in the identity of the city they represent every Sunday. He has been to the site many times. Yet one room on this visit caught him completely off guard. “There’s a room, I’d never been in it before, and it’s just a dark room with benches and it scrolls through names of people who died, and then there’s video of the relatives talking about them, and it really got to me. “I think it had a profound impact on the players. You go in that room, but you come out a different person,” he added. In the immediate aftermath of the attacks, Johnson recalls a conversation that settled the question of whether the Jets would play that week. Quarterback Vinny Testaverde made the case directly, and Johnson backed him without hesitation. And we canceled before we even knew that flights would be shut down. It was the right decision. Beyond the museum, Johnson has been a consistent supporter of the Tunnel to Towers Foundation, which was built to serve the families of first responders and veterans. “Now it does things like pay off mortgages for those wounded or widows. If you have the means to give back as an American, you have to do it. You really do. In recognition of more than a decade of partnership, Tunnel to Towers will honor Johnson at their annual gala in December with the Follow the Footsteps Award. “It showed our resilience. It was a horrific terrorist attack, there’s no question about it, but we can take some good out of it too. Get the latest Sports News and Live updates. Download the TOI app.
Johnson wanted the players who wear the Jets uniform today to understand what that means in a city like New York.
New York Jets owner Woody Johnson lost close friends on September 11, 2001. On September 9, 2026, Johnson brought current Jets players, including Geno Smith, Demario Davis, and Harrison Phillips, to the 9/11 Memorial and Museum ahead of the 25th anniversary. Twenty-five years later, he is still showing up. The visit was tied to the opening of a new exhibit, In Their Honor . What nobody quite expected was that Johnson himself would be the one who broke down inside.