NFL’s Week 1 9/11 tribute begins in Seattle with wild guitar solo during national anthem
Developed over time first seen 4 weeks ago
The NFL marked the 25th anniversary of the 11 September 2001 terrorist attacks throughout its Week 1 schedule, with the Seattle Seahawks' season opener against the New England Patriots – a rematch of Super Bowl LX – setting the tone. A pregame announcement at Lumen Field explicitly described the events as "terrorist attacks" and led the crowd in a moment of silence, with teams given latitude on how to shape their individual tributes before similar remembrances followed at games in Australia and across the rest of the league.
Seattle's tribute featured a joint sign-language and guitar rendition of the national anthem, with Pearl Jam guitarist Mike McCready opening in a Jimi Hendrix-inspired style before veering into an improvised, grunge-inflected solo, which NBC's Mike Tirico called "authentically Seattle" on air. The Seahawks also hosted first responders who had travelled from across the country to assist in the 9/11 recovery effort, with the ceremony closing on a military flyover as the 2026 regular season got under way.
- NFL held 9/11 25th-anniversary tributes across Week 1 games
- Seattle's opener featured moment of silence and unconventional anthem
- Pearl Jam's Mike McCready played improvised guitar solo anthem
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Bright, glaring stadium lights aside, here's the background.
Every September, National Football League teams hold pregame tributes to mark the anniversary of the 11 September 2001 attacks, in which hijacked aircraft were flown into the World Trade Center in New York, the Pentagon, and a field in Pennsylvania, killing nearly 3,000 people. This year marked the 25th anniversary, and the league's opening week of games fell close to the date, so clubs were given some leeway in how they chose to commemorate it.
The Seattle Seahawks hosted the New England Patriots for their first game of the season at Lumen Field, and built their tribute around local character, including a sign-language version of the national anthem and first responders who had taken part in the September 11 rescue and recovery effort. The anthem's music was performed by Mike McCready, guitarist with the Seattle rock band Pearl Jam, whose city has long been associated with the grunge music scene of the 1990s.
Both sides, in good faith
The strongest fair case each way — we don't pick a winner.
The case for
Those who welcomed the unconventional rendition would argue that music is one of the most powerful vehicles for grief and resilience, and that inviting a beloved local musician to interpret the anthem in his own idiom – much as Hendrix himself once radically reimagined it – captures the spirit of remembrance through authentic, heartfelt expression rather than rote formality. They would point out that the guitar solo was paired with sign-language interpretation and followed genuine tributes to travelling first responders, suggesting the creative touch was one sincere part of a broader ceremony rather than a stunt, and that giving teams latitude to mark the day in their own community's voice honours local identity within a shared national moment of grief.
The case against
Those who preferred a more traditional, solemn rendition would argue that a 9/11 tribute calls for restraint and unity above individual artistic flourish, since a moment intended to honour thousands of deaths and the sacrifice of first responders risks being overshadowed by a performer's own stylistic showcase. They might contend that departing from a familiar, straightforward rendition on such a weighty anniversary can read as entertainment rather than remembrance, and that collective national grief is best expressed through shared, recognisable ritual rather than improvisation, however well-intentioned the performer.
Full account
The National Football League opened its 2026 regular season in Seattle with a tribute marking the 25th anniversary of the 11 September 2001 terrorist attacks, as the Seahawks hosted the New England Patriots at Lumen Field in a repeat of the previous Super Bowl. Before kick-off, a stadium announcement described the attacks as the deadliest in American history and asked spectators to observe a moment of silence for those affected, a request the crowd largely honoured. The league had indicated that all Week One fixtures, including matches played later in Australia and beyond, would carry some form of remembrance, though clubs were given latitude over how to mark the occasion.
Seattle's version of the national anthem departed from the conventional vocal rendition, pairing a sign-language interpretation with an instrumental guitar solo performed by Pearl Jam's Mike McCready. Commentary on the broadcast likened the opening of his performance to Jimi Hendrix's famous rock reworking of the anthem before it evolved into something more distinctly associated with Seattle's grunge tradition; NBC's Mike Tirico is reported to have called it 'authentically Seattle'. The pre-game programme also featured first responders who had travelled from across the United States to assist in the recovery effort after the 2001 attacks, with a military flypast providing a further visual flourish once the anthem had concluded.
The city's musical heritage was given further prominence at half-time, when Soundgarden took to the field for a short set. With founding singer Chris Cornell having died in 2017, vocal duties were handled by Taylor Momsen of The Pretty Reckless, who has stood in for the band on previous occasions, including their Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction and a 2019 tribute concert in Los Angeles. McCready joined the group on guitar for a medley reported to have included the songs 'Outshined' and 'Spoonman'.
The occasion was framed as much as a celebration of Seattle's rock lineage as a solemn commemoration, with a pre-game concert by country singer Luke Bryan staged several hours before kick-off. Coverage also noted that Soundgarden are working on new material drawing on unreleased recordings made with Cornell before his death, said to be destined for an eight-track album, while McCready is separately developing a multimedia project revisiting his own band's history. On the field, the Seahawks narrowly defeated the Patriots by a score of 13-10.
Where outlets differ
The Fox News-affiliated account (Source 1) foregrounds the patriotic and remembrance aspects of the evening — the wording of the stadium announcement, the moment of silence, the presence of 9/11 first responders and the military flypast — and includes opinion/commentary criticising how the attacks are sometimes described politically; that editorialising is not treated as neutral fact here.
The music-industry report (Source 2) emphasises Seattle's grunge heritage and the entertainment bill, giving far more detail on the Soundgarden half-time performance, Taylor Momsen's history of standing in for Chris Cornell, the pre-game Luke Bryan concert, and Soundgarden's forthcoming album — details largely absent from Source 1.
Only Source 2 reports the final score (Seahawks 13, Patriots 10) and confirms the game took place on Wednesday 10 September 2026; Source 1 focuses on the tribute itself and its wider rollout across the NFL's Week One schedule rather than the game's outcome.