This is what happens when you force a flock of famished football fans to wait 54 weeks to let themselves breathe. This was the second half of the roar that had started 374 days earlier, when Aaron Rodgers sprinted onto the field at MetLife Stadium, an American flag in his hands.
There were 83,345 people there that night, and they were whipped into a frenzy. MetLife Stadium had never felt that electric. Maybe it was louder on the Christmas Eve afternoon when Eli Manning found Victor Cruz for 99 yards, but that was cause-and-effect. Sept. 11, 2023, had been all about build-up. All about crescendo.