Former Giants stars Tiki Barber, Amani Toomer discuss the immediate aftermath of 9/11 attacks

Tiki Barber used to drive his car to Newark Airport when the Giants had late road games. The former running back wanted to get home to Manhattan faster than taking the team bus back to Giants Stadium.

After the Giants lost their 2001 season opener on Monday Night Football in Denver, Barber followed that plan. The Giants landed at Newark early Tuesday morning and Barber walked through the terminal while the rest of the team took the bus.

That morning, however, was Sept. 11. The Giants’ plane had parked at the gate right next to United Flight 93. Hours later, that very flight was hijacked by terrorists and crashed in a Pennsylvania field after passengers fought back to thwart the attackers’ plans.

Twenty-five years later, Barber still feels angst over that eerie encounter.

“We walked through this area and there were likely terrorists in that area,” he told Newsday. “There were people who, less than five hours later, were going to perish. These crossroads that happen in life, when you stop to think about them, it scares you sometimes.”

The Giants became one of several beacons of hope for New York after the World Trade Center was destroyed by two planes. But like many people, players had difficulty processing what they saw and felt.

Amani Toomer was supposed to meet with an interior decorator in New York that day. Instead, the decorator canceled their plans once the second plane struck the World Trade Center.

Toomer, who stayed in West New York in New Jersey, looked outside his home and saw the towers ablaze. In his words, they looked like cigarettes smoking in the sky.

“It was the craziest thing I’ve ever seen and I’m sitting there watching it,” the former receiver told Newsday. “We heard there’s people on top trying to get off and I’m like, ‘OK, hopefully they’ll get some helicopters up there.’ And then we just saw there was an explosion halfway down the building and the whole thing just came down.

“It was just really super-scary and it looked like a movie.”

Barber found out what happened when he got home and his phone kept ringing. As he watched the events unfold on TV, the third plane crashed into the Pentagon, and he realized the nation was under attack.

He remembered that his sister-in-law worked near the World Trade Center, so he and his family kept trying to call her. But with cell service affected, it was difficult to check in.

“It was the first time where I felt like I didn’t have anything to do and I didn’t know what to do,” Barber said.

What the Giants eventually did, along with the Jets, was push the NFL to cancel their games that weekend. The NFL postponed all games on Sept. 16-17, the first time a full week of games had been canceled since the 1987 players’ strike.

The Giants also took a trip to Ground Zero to visit the first responders. With no game to focus on, the team shifted to supporting a city in pain and people trying to heal.

Toomer and Barber recalled that the workers were excited to see the team. It became a break from the reality of search-and-rescue through a maze of steel, glass and metal.

“A lot of the first responders were so dialed in and searching that they didn’t recognize us. And then when they did, it’s like it released all of this emotion because a lot of them started breaking down and crying,” Barber said. “We were there to thank them for all that they were doing, but it ended up being them thanking us for bringing humanity back to them.”

Even when practice resumed, it wasn’t an escape. The Giants could see the smoke from the World Trade Center at their facility in East Rutherford. There were cars in the commuter lot nearby that never left, a reminder that some of their occupants likely lost their lives.

Toomer saw F-16 fighter planes patrol above the Hudson River. They sounded heavier and different from the usual planes or jets.

“It was like a feeling of safety,” Toomer said. “But then it was another feeling of like, ‘Oh my God, we’re at war.’ ”

The Giants returned to play on Sept. 23 at Kansas City. Some players expected a hostile crowd, knowing that Arrowhead Stadium was a tough place for visiting teams. Instead, they were greeted with a standing ovation and fans holding signs of support.

In a break from tradition, the Giants stood on the sidelines for the national anthem to pay their respects. Before 2001, teams didn’t stand on the sidelines for the national anthem. They remained in the locker room. Even after 9/11, it didn’t become a full-time thing until 2009, when the league mandated it.

Some players cried as “The Star-Spangled Banner” played. Barber heard the words differently as he reflected on how the country felt united and wanted to help each other heal.

The Giants won, 13-3, and took a picture in the locker room wearing hats for the New York Police and Fire Departments. Toomer said the game took on more meaning for what it represented.

“We felt like it would be more important to give the city something to cheer about, and that’s what we were focused on,” he said. “But then it was like, we were still grieving as well.”

It started a three-game winning streak, including another emotional game as the Giants returned to Giants Stadium on Sept. 30 against the Saints. But the weight of the tragedy and its aftermath affected the season as the Giants went 7-9.

There were highlights, such as Michael Strahan setting the NFL single-season sack record, but Toomer and Barber said it was hard to focus on games and be at their best.

“You almost didn’t care about the winning and losing,” Barber said. “You realize we’re playing a game. It’s not life or death like so many thousands had lost their lives. It’s a game, and it got really hard to stay focused on it.”

Now, 25 years later, a new Giants season begins Sunday. The team will pay tribute to the tragedy throughout the game, including a pregame moment of silence, a video tribute and a light beam display. Members of the 2001 team and first responders will lead fans in a “Go Big Blue!” chant before kickoff.

Toomer said the attacks served as a reminder that the United States could not escape the conflicts felt by the rest of the world. Twenty-five years later, he and Barber still cannot fathom how close they came to Flight 93 that Tuesday morning.

Barber has six children, and his oldest son, AJ, is 24 years old. None of them were born before 9/11, and that adds perspective when he thinks about this week being 25 years since he likely walked past passengers taking their final flight.

“It’s not something that they experienced like we did and their emotions aren’t attached the same way,” Barber said of his kids. “So when I think about this weekend, to me, it’s having a conversation with my kids just to make sure we never forget.”

By Evan Barnes

evan.barnes@newsday.comevan_b

Evan Barnes covers the Giants for Newsday. He previously covered the Brooklyn Nets, Memphis football and the Memphis Grizzlies and also covered prep sports in Los Angeles.