Joe Andruzzi 25 Years After 9/11: ‘Sports At That Time Helped Heal Everybody’s Wounds’

Twenty-five years is an eternity. Twenty-five years can also be nothing at all. For former Patriots guard Joe Andruzzi and his three brothers, the 25-year mark they reached this week is barely the blink of an eye.

It has been 25 years since Jimmy, the second-oldest Andruzzi brother, barely escaped the North Tower before it plummeted during the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attack on the World Trade Center in New York.

All these years later, Jimmy, then stationed at Engine 5 on East 14th Street, declined an interview about it. Who can blame him? He ran out of a doorway at the base of the tower just before it became a coffin of hot, twisted steel, surviving by the slimmest of margins that 343 other members of the FDNY couldn’t find. As for Joe, the day is vivid. So, too, is the grim aftermath.

“I could close my eyes right now, and you have those photographic memories of what went down and what you were seeing that day. We all have memories of where we were at, what we were doing.”
Joe Andruzzi

“I could close my eyes right now, and you have those photographic memories of what went down and what you were seeing that day,” Andruzzi said. “We all have memories of where we were at, what we were doing. I can close my eyes and think about two days after 9/11. I was down there in New York City, going to pick up my brother Jimmy from his firehouse and looking down the FDR Drive and seeing buildings. It was like a scene from a movie. Buildings and the windows were blown out, papers still flying in the air, and the smell was just burnt fuel and flesh mixed together. It was nasty.”

Andruzzi, 51, is a husband, father and three-time Super Bowl champion. He’s also the brother of three New York City firefighters (Jimmy, Billy Jr. and Marc), all of whom were either part of the immediate response or involved in the Lower Manhattan clean-up after an act that claimed 2,753 lives.

On Sept. 11, Andruzzi was in a dentist’s chair when he heard about a plane slamming into the North Tower at 8:46 a.m. ET. Later, he was in his North Attleboro, Mass., home with his two children and wife, Jen, frantically waiting to hear if his brothers were alive. They all were.

“[Jimmy] actually gave my parents’ phone number to a guy on the street who had a cell phone at the time,” Andruzzi said. “He asked him to call my parents and just tell them I’m alive, and he did.”

Twelve days after the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon (along with Flight 93 being downed in a Pennsylvania field), Andruzzi and the Patriots stepped onto the field at Foxboro Stadium for their home opener. The Jets were in town. So were all three of Joe’s brothers, fire helmets on, with No. 63 Andruzzi jerseys beneath FDNY jackets.

As Andruzzi prepared to run out of the Patriots’ tunnel and onto the field, a flash of colors caught his eye: red, white and blue.

Retired Patriots guard Joe Andruzzi — Twelve days after Sept. 11, 2001, then-Patriots guard Joe Andruzzi ran onto the field at Foxboro Stadium to honor his three brothers, all New York City firefighters. | Courtesy Joe Andruzzi

“When I came running out and they called my name, I wasn’t planning on carrying those flags. I went out in the tunnel, and there were two flags taped to the wall. So it was a last-minute decision to rip them off the wall and hold them up high. I knew my dad and brothers were standing on the 50-yard line waiting for me to get there. People knew my story; they knew my family was there and you’re holding those flags up high. It meant so much.”

The crowd saluted their heroes, and the Andruzzi brothers responded in kind by tipping their helmets. Afterward, they participated in the coin toss then took a photo with Joe and their father. That photograph is in every Andruzzi home.

“I tell people all the time: I played in four Super Bowls, and going out there that day, I never had more butterflies in my stomach than going back out there after 9/11 just to prove to people that life goes on. Sports at that time helped heal everybody’s wounds. That’s what we were paid to do, and it was part of our job. One of the things that we had to do was go out there and do it one play at a time.”

On that day, the Patriots lost, falling to 0–2. It barely seemed to matter considering the state of the country, which was preparing to go into a full-scale war in the Middle East. The war eventually took soldiers into Afghanistan and Iraq, among other places. On the field, it appeared to be the start of just another lost season for New England, a franchise that hadn’t won a championship since being a charter member of the American Football League in 1960.

To make matters worse, quarterback Drew Bledsoe was injured on a brutal fourth-quarter hit by Jets linebacker Mo Lewis, leaving the Patriots’ fate in the hands of second-year man Tom Brady, an unheralded sixth-round pick from Michigan.

Of course, Brady and the Patriots rallied from their lackluster start. Brady would eventually become the greatest quarterback of all time while New England went 11–5 in 2001 and made a miracle run to the Super Bowl. As a two-touchdown underdog to the Rams, the Patriots did something never before seen on Super Bowl Sunday. They chose to be announced as a team. They then went on to stun the world, winning 20–17 on a last-second, 48-yard field goal by Adam Vinatieri.

But it all started on a day dedicated to the heroes and victims of Sept. 11, during a game that ended both in despair and defeat.

Marc and Jimmy Andruzzi — Marc Andruzzi hugged his brother Jimmy after finding him on Sept. 11, 2001. | Courtesy Joe Andruzzi

“After that game, we had to come together as a team, as a group,” Andruzzi says. “Kind of like how the country came together. We had to get stronger. We had to prove to people in other countries that that’s not going to happen again. We can’t let our guard down.”

A quarter-century removed from one of America’s darkest days, history has unfolded. The Patriots became a dynasty. Andruzzi started at guard in their first three Super Bowl triumphs between 2001 to ’04. More importantly, legions of first responders to the 9/11 terrorist attacks have either become ill or passed away in the years afterward due to the inhalation of toxins.

The Andruzzi family hasn’t had a loss stemming from that day, although Billy, the oldest brother, did require open-heart surgery due to a blockage.

“By all means, let’s not just think about what happened the day of,” Andruzzi said. “There have been so many aftermath deaths from 9/11, the fumes and everything like that, cancer, breathing problems. There’s been hundreds of deaths added onto 9/11.”

Marc and Billy Jr. have retired as firefighters after being injured on the job. Jimmy remains on active duty, with his 31st anniversary with FDNY in October. Joe is retired but helping run the Joe Andruzzi Foundation, dedicated to helping cancer patients in New England find financial help and support. It’s a cause dear to him after beating non-Hodgkin Burkitt lymphoma after a 2007 diagnosis.

Time has gone on. Some lives have continued. Some never had the opportunity to.

Twenty-five years can mimic forever. For the Andruzzis, 9/11 will always feel like yesterday.

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