Commissioner Bettman discusses healing process at 9/11 Memorial & Museum

NEW YORK -- NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman was part of a panel at the 9/11 Memorial & Museum in lower Manhattan on Thursday and discussed how the League dealt with the tragedy and began the healing process following the terrorist attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people on Sept. 11, 2001.

Commissioner Bettman was joined by former NBA commissioner David Stern, former NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue and Big East Conference Commissioner Val Ackerman, the former WNBA commissioner. Each was the commissioner in his or her sport on 9/11 and also lived and worked in New York.
"One of the important things about sports is to give fans a sense of normalcy, that life can go on," said Commissioner Bettman, who was in Nebraska at the time of the attacks. "At some point, particularly in the face of terrorism, you have to move forward and not let, as they say, the terrorists win. We have to resume life, and I think sports help people do that."
Although the NHL was not in season at the time, there were exhibition games scheduled, and the League was the first major sport to resume. The New York Rangers hosted the New Jersey Devils at Madison Square Garden on Sept. 19, 2001.

"We wanted to be respectful," Commissioner Bettman said. "We understood the need to respond appropriately to a horrific tragedy, but at the same time, at some point we knew we had to participate in helping to normalize life but making sure our fans were safe."
The "Comeback Season: Sports after 9/11" exhibit, which opened at the 9/11 Memorial & Museum in June, focuses on the role sports played following the tragedy. It includes an exhibit with former Rangers captain Mark Messier, who wore the helmet of a fallen firefighter weeks later on ice prior to New York's season-opening home game. It also features a Los Angeles Kings jersey signed by members of the team and staff after two Kings scouts, Garnet Bailey and Mark Bavis, died in the attacks.
"Everyone, including us and the New York Police Department, were concerned about security in New York," Commissioner Bettman said. "Hockey and the Rangers have always been close to the NYPD and fire department. And the first night of the hockey season, Mark Messier came out in a fireman's hockey jersey and helmet, and it was all about a tribute to the first responders."
The exhibit is open until May 12, and tickets can be purchased at 911memorial.org/sports.
"It's overwhelming," Commissioner Bettman said of the exhibit. "Being a native New Yorker and thinking back to 9/11, to go through this amazing museum is both depressing and uplifting at the same time.
"In big and small ways, sports can make a difference in people's lives and make the difference about how a community feels about itself."