Giants-Cowboys Sunday Night Game Set for 25th 9/11 Anniversary Tribute, First-Ever Hamilton Halftime Show

The 25th anniversary of the September 11 attacks falls this week, and the NFL is folding that into its Week 1 schedule with a moment of silence before every game, according to Bolavip. The biggest production of the night belongs to the Giants, who host the Dallas Cowboys Sunday, September 13, in the season's first Sunday Night Football broadcast at MetLife Stadium. The game is also John Harbaugh's first regular-season home game with New York, per Bolavip.

The Giants organization laid out the full pregame plan in a release picked up by Giants.com and BVM Sports. Fans arriving at the stadium will pass Ladder 343, a ceremonial FDNY truck named for the 343 firefighters killed on 9/11. Outside the gates, the Tunnel to Towers Foundation will wrap up its Steel Across America tour with an actual steel beam from the World Trade Center on display.

Inside, players and coaches from both teams will wear commemorative NYPD, FDNY and PAPD gear plus "Never Forget" t-shirts during warmups, with hat sales in the team store benefiting those first-responder agencies. New York City first responders will form a gauntlet for player introductions, which the Giants want fans seated for by 8 p.m.

The ceremony continues with a moment of silence set to a photo montage of 9/11 victims submitted by season ticket members, a Tribute in Light illuminating two vertical columns over the stadium, a joint NYPD-FDNY-PAPD honor guard, and a National Anthem performed by members of both departments. A 100-yard American flag will stretch across the field held by both teams' coaches and players, with a flyover from New Jersey State Police helicopters closing out the anthem.

The Palumbo family, whose father died in the FDNY on 9/11 and who received support from the Jim Fassel Foundation, will serve as honorary coin-toss captains. Four members of the 2001 Giants team, Jesse Armstead, Tiki Barber, Kerry Collins and Jason Sehorn, who landed at Newark Airport hours before the hijackings that day, will join first responders for a "Go Big Blue" chant before kickoff, according to the New York Post.

Halftime shifts from tribute to spectacle. The Giants will bring Hamilton to an NFL field for the first time, according to Playbill and BroadwayWorld. The arrangement, credited to Alex Lacamoire and Don P. Roberts, features Nicholas Christopher as Aaron Burr, Mandy Gonzalez, Morgan Anita Wood and Candace Quarrels as the Schuyler Sisters, soloist Jaheim Lee, and a marching band collaboration between Morgan State University's Magnificent Marching Machine and the Penn State Blue Band. The Penn State band will bus straight from Lincoln Financial Field, where it played Penn State's game against Temple on Saturday, up to MetLife Stadium for Sunday's performance, according to Onward State.

Demand for the night is showing up in ticket prices. As of Thursday afternoon, the average purchase price for a Giants-Cowboys ticket sat at $369, according to TickPick, the highest for a Jets or Giants home game the site has tracked since at least 2011. The cheapest get-in price was $242.

The Giants again listed all 52 active players as full practice participants this week, the Post reported. Head coach John Harbaugh, who balks at sharing injury information, did not disclose how tackle Andrew Thomas landed on the injury list with a knee issue after a healthy preseason.

Kickoff is set for Sunday night. The league's broader Week 1 remembrance includes live national anthem coverage during the 1 p.m. games league-wide, though the Giants' pregame production stands out as one of the most elaborate any team has announced for the anniversary.