We were fighting for good news from somewhere.

[After that fight, Johnson told the Patriot News of Harrisburg, Pa., that several ex-teammates attacked him.] I was fighting about six-on-one, ... I was like a gladiator or something.

We're just sort of fighting, in terms of news value, for the scraps, the behind-the-scenes stories.

[The rains came at 3 a.m. Friday morning. Read was treated for exhaustion with an IV, but not wanting to leave the scene and go to a hospital when he thought he could still help, he slept for a few hours in a blown-out booth of a restaurant and regained just enough strength to return to sights no one should have to see.] Friday morning we found a lot of fire fighters' body parts, legs, fingers, ... They pulled a woman out right in front of me and we realized she had no head. There are just images that can never escape you. After four or five trips to the morgue carrying bags of body parts, I'd had enough.

[On the morning of Sept. 11, Read awoke to the sound of his mother's tears. After learning what had happened in New York City, he joined a task force of rescue units that began arriving from New Jersey within a half-hour of when the North Tower was struck. Read reached Liberty State Park, 15 minutes after the first tower collapsed. At the scene, rescue crews created a staging area and field hospital with other units. The group included 250 ambulances, 100 surgeons, 50 paramedics, 50 nurses and 350 emergency medical technicians.] It was an impressive staging area, ... We had everything we needed. Organization just sort of happened.

Our defense stepped up and our offense definitely came through big time. We made that route, they bit on it, and Kyle threw a perfect ball.