Michael Strahan is leading a new ABC News special, “9/11: United We Stand – 25 Years Later,” airing Tuesday, Sept. 1.
How Michael Strahan, Pete Davidson became friends after tragedy
Michael Strahan tapped Pete Davidson for a new documentary on how the country healed after Sept. 11, 2001. Strahan says Davidson is a ‘good friend.’
NEW YORK – Michael Strahan has enlisted a number of big names for a new documentary, including a celebrity that he refers to as his “little brother.”
The “Good Morning America” coanchor leads a new ABC News special, “9/11: United We Stand – 25 Years Later” (Tuesday, Sept. 1, 9 p.m. ET on ABC, streaming the next day on Disney+). The program, which Strahan coproduced with his company SMAC Entertainment, brings in voices from throughout news, sports and entertainment to recall how the country healed with the help of comedy, Broadway, live music and sporting events following the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11.
“9/11: United We Stand – 25 Years Later” includes interviews with entertainers Jimmy Fallon, Jon Stewart, Jon Bon Jovi, Billy Crystal and Matthew Broderick, plus a slew of sports stars led by former New York Yankee Derek Jeter, who also serves as an executive producer through his Cap 2 Productions company. Strahan’s ABC colleagues Robin Roberts, George Stephanopoulos and Martha Raddatz also appear in the two-hour production.
Actor and comedian Pete Davidson also contributes to the Sept. 11 documentary. When the attacks happened, Davidson was 7. His father Scott was a New York City firefighter who died while responding to the Sept. 11 attacks.
“I’m just so happy to see where he is, what he’s built his career into being, because he’s had to deal with a lot,” Strahan, 54, tells USA TODAY about Davidson. “I don’t know if that pain or that hurt ever goes away, but I think he’s found his way through comedy to deal with it.”
At the time of the attacks, Strahan was a 29-year-old in the midst of an eventual Hall of Fame football career as a defensive end for the New York Giants. The year would prove to be a pivotal year for Strahan in more than one way.
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On Sept. 10, 2001, the Giants lost the season opener in Denver to the Broncos. Following the game, the team boarded a red-eye flight back to Newark Liberty International Airport.
Strahan recounts in the ABC special that the Giants’ plane crossed paths with United Airlines Flight 93, one of the four commercial jetliners that terrorists hijacked on the morning of Sept. 11. The flight, which the terrorists originally had on a path to Washington D.C., instead crashed into a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania. All 44 people died onboard, however, had it not been for the heroic acts of the passengers who fought back against the hijackers, the casualties may have been greater.
After the Sept. 11 attacks, Strahan served as a voice for his teammates, who along with the New York Jets and eventually other teams, successfully lobbied the NFL to postpone a week of games after the tragedy. The former defensive end recalls the days following Sept. 11, 2001 with a piercing amount of clarity.
“So many teams stepped up who couldn’t visually see what we could see,” Strahan, 54, “[The other teams] couldn’t see the cars that were left over in the parking lot from the commuters at the stadium [who didn’t return].”
Strahan recalls watching the smoke rise from where the towers once stood, which could be seen from the Giants practice facility across the Hudson River in New Jersey.
“And there were so many other teams who said, ‘If they feel this way, we’re not playing. We’re standing with our brothers,'” Strahan continues. “And that meant a lot to all of us. I think it brought the league together.”
The NFL resumed its schedule on Sept. 23, 2001. The Giants won in Kansas City before returning to the Meadowlands in New Jersey for a game against the Saints on Sept. 30. Before kickoff, first responders who lost their lives on Sept. 11 and their families were honored. Davidson was there, and met Strahan during the ceremony.
Fast-forward to 2018: Strahan is interviewing Ariana Grande, who just became engaged to Davidson, for ABC News. After the interview, Grande’s fiancé comes into the recording studio to say hello to Strahan. It’s at that moment, 17 years later, that Davidson reveals he met Strahan as a child at Giants Stadium.
“I’m very proud of him,” Strahan says of Davidson, noting the two texted prior Strahan’s interview with USA TODAY. “I’m happy to call him my friend and I refer to him as my little brother.”
Michael Strahan set an NFL record in 2001 that stood for 24 years
On the field, the Giants’ 2001 season was rather forgettable: the team finished with more losses than wins and didn’t make the playoffs. But Strahan’s individual numbers cemented his status as an all-time NFL star. He set a new league record with 22.5 quarterback sacks. The record was tied in 2021 and broken in the 2025 season.
Strahan also earned Defensive Player of the Year honors. He remembers a trip with his teammates to Ground Zero in lower Manhattan as a turning point.
“We went around and tried to just see as many people as we could, hoping that would help with morale,” he recalls. “And I had experienced exhaustion on the football field, but I’d never experienced exhaustion like I saw with these first responders and everyone who was down there to help.”
Strahan says the experience changed his mindset “for the rest of my career.”
“I just remember thinking to myself, ‘What I’ve experienced is not being tired,'” he continues. “If someone’s going to take the three hours that we could give them of a distraction, I wanted to give them the best that I could give them personally out of those three hours.”
Throughout the two-hour program, a number of sports and entertainment figures echo the sentiment of providing New York and the country with a distraction through their respective professions. The common thread through it all is Americans helping one another grieve and heal.
“It was so heavy to do it by yourself,” Strahan says. “It was helpful to deal with it with teammates, with people who I’m in the midst of working with, who understood and could feel the same things that I felt.”
“You need other people to get through it,” he adds. “You need love, you need hope, you need help, you need all those things. And the sooner you realized that, the better you were gonna be for it.”