KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Cole Christiansen had just turned 4 years old a few weeks earlier when the events of Sept. 11, 2001, shattered the sense of safety for Americans,
Yet there are hazy memories of that time and place for the future Chiefs linebacker growing up in Suffolk, Virginia, a three-hour drive from the Pentagon where one of the attacks took place.
“I don’t know if it’s me thinking I remember and I don’t I remember, like my mom taking us to a restaurant, or waiting for my dad to come back because he was a firefighter and we didn’t know what was going on,” Christensen said Wednesday as the country solemnly marked the 23 years that have passed since that fateful day.
As he grew older, the gravity of 9/11 took on greater meaning. In addition to his firefighter father, his grandfather served in the Air Force for more than 40 years. Christiansen always felt patriotic and that serving his country was the honorable thing to do but the idea did not truly blossom until his high school years, and then even more so when the United States Military Academy began recruiting him to play football for the Black Knights.
“Once West Point started recruiting me, and I started researching it and what the Army can give you, and like, what it does for people, and what kind of person you become, I was like, we’ll regret this forever if I don’t go there,” Christiansen explained.
As an Army cadet attending college less than 50 miles north of Ground Zero and the 9/11 Memorial & Museum in Manhattan, Christiansen again found himself affected by the memories of that day.
“From West Point, you can see the two beams from the memorial in New York City,” he said. “So West Point’s memorial service up there — it just brings you to tears every time. Four years of that, just getting that fed into you, it’ll get you motivated to want to go serve and do something about preventing something like that.”
The military’s policy on professional athletes deferring their service has changed frequently over the years. When Pro Football Hall of Fame quarterback Roger Staubach graduated from the Naval Academy in 1965, he served a four-year hitch including a tour in South Vietnam in the Supply Corps before starting his professional football career in 1969 as a 27-year-old rookie. He was a “future” selection for the Kansas City Chiefs in the 16th round of the 1964 AFL Draft but opted to play for the Dallas Cowboys, which selected him in the 10th round of the 1964 NFL Draft.
David Robinson, a member of the Basketball Hall of Fame, served a two-year active duty obligation with the Navy between graduating from the Naval Academy and embarking on an NBA career with the San Antonio Spurs. His 7-foot-1 height prevented Robinson from serving as a commissioned officer at sea, and he instead received a commission in the Naval Reserve as a civil engineering officer and was featured in recruiting campaigns for the Navy.
The policy for service academy athletes has changed frequently during the past decade. Christiansen applied for a waiver and in April 2020 he received permission to defer his five-year active duty commitment until after his NFL career closes. Congress eliminated that option in 2023, although later pushed the effective date to 2025. The current National Defense Authorization Act under consideration in the Senate would restore the option for service academy athletes.
Once Christiansen’s NFL career concludes, his Army career will begin.
That nearly happened this summer. At his request, the Chiefs withdrew their exclusive rights tender as he contemplated retirement and starting his active duty assignment. Just more than a week later, Christiansen re-signed with the Chiefs for at least one more season. He’s currently on the team’s practice squad.
“I’d actually already thought about being done, just because I kind of checked the boxes that I thought I’d be able to check doing the NFL thing,” he said. “And then I had a change of heart. I was like, I might as well keep pursuing this.
“I never really thought I’d be in the NFL as long as I have. Very thankful and fortunate, but we’ll see. We’re just kind of playing it year by year right now.”
Christiansen knows each NFL season could be his last before he resumes his service to his nation. He trained for assignment to the Field Artillery Branch — “the big cannons,” he explained. There’s been some discussion that he may serve in recruitment, using his platform as an NFL player and a two-time Super Bowl champion — although more rings are always possible.
“I do have a five-year obligation, it’s a little daunting to push it too far down the road,” he explained. “Because if you want to start a family or whatever, it’s kind of tough when you’re like, becoming a brand new Second Lieutenant at 30 and then starting from there. So that’s kind of been weaving over me since this whole thing started.”
The remembrance of 9/11 is a day of reflection for nearly all Americans, and especially service members such as Christiansen. The day reminds him why he pledged to serve his country and that there is more work to be done. Just as it did as a child and as a high school student, the day still shapes his worldview and his priorities.
“Whether it’s talking about 9/11 or just the atrocities and whatnot that are going around in the world, you kind of feel someone’s got to go there and do something about this. And why not me, if you’re a fit and capable person, yeah.”
