Brother’s brush with death on 9/11 reshaped everything for Robert Saleh

Robert Saleh's life changed for him that day

Robert Saleh walked into his Dearborn, Mich., home at the morning of 9/11, 2001, turned the corner, and determined his dad and mom in a country of misery. His father, Sam, changed into light and his mother, Fatin, was in tears as they watched the north tower of the World Trade Center burn on TV.

"And then the second tower was hit, and my mother simply loses it," Saleh instructed The Post on Friday. "A waterfall of feelings went via the entire own family."

Robert’s huge brother, David, the oldest of the four Saleh siblings, became within the south tower, training to be a financial consultant. He was on the second day of a 90-day Morgan Stanley program, and now he turned into below attack from a terrorist organization that had determined to fly hijacked planes into American symbols of financial and navy would possibly.

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"If I ever wanted to realize what my mom would look like if she lost one folks," recalled the rookie head train of the Jets, "that become it."

Robert Saleh spoke as he stood on pinnacle of a small building at his group’s facility. At 42, projecting the look and physicality of a Marine, Saleh became two days far from his debut, within the Jets’ recreation at Carolina, as an NFL head educate. With a swirling wind howling around him, Saleh become asked if there has been a time on Sept. 11 when he concept his large brother turned into lifeless.

"In my mind, he changed into gone," the educate said. This turned into after David had referred to as his parents to tell them he become alive, however earlier than the towers collapsed and inspired another overwhelming wave of anxiety and fear.

"It wasn’t till darn close to four, five o’clock that we heard returned from him," Saleh stated. "As the hours go, it felt like all the time. And you’re praying for the nice, but you’re questioning the worst."

Twenty years later, David Saleh changed into on the telephone describing how he dodged the worst possible scenario. He became looking out a 61st-floor window, admiring the view of the Statue of Liberty and the size of a yacht with  helipads, when a mammoth fireball raged out of the adjoining tower. A manager emerged and asked about the commotion.

"The constructing next door blew up," David told him. "Look at the debris out of doors, it’s on fire."

David grabbed his property and headed quick down the steps. When he reached the 40th ground, a voice at the intercom introduced that it turned into safe for all and sundry to go back to their workplaces. Some employees listened and did a U-flip, and a few, like David, saved going. On the 24th ground, he heard a sonic growth and felt his tower shake. People swayed backward and forward inside the stairwell, and the lighting fixtures flicked on and stale. David had no idea that a plane had precipitated that fireball inside the north tower, and he had no concept that a plane had just slammed into his tower. "I thought the constructing round the corner was crumbling on pinnacle folks," he recalled.

David made it to the foyer, in which those fleeing the carnage have been escorted beyond blown-out elevator shafts, lower back up a flight of stairs, and out a back go out, away from an area in which maximum of the debris and our bodies were plunging from the sky. He made it onto the road and ran for seven or 8 blocks before his legs gave out.

"It turned into like a complete crash of my adrenaline," he stated. "I began coughing up black phlegm."

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His cell smartphone rendered vain, David entered a party keep and asked the man at the counter if he ought to use his smartphone. David known as home, and his father instructed him about the hijacked planes. When the towers in the long run collapsed one after the opposite, making for an apocalyptic scene, David felt shock, sadness, and anger suddenly. He made it back to his Times Square motel and in the end known as his parents returned. That’s while the Salehs knew for the first time that their boy became going to make it domestic.

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On Feb. 4, 2002, 5 months after the 9-11 assaults and in the future after the Patriots disappointed the Rams in Super Bowl 36, Robert Saleh, then a 23-year-antique credit analyst at a bank, called his massive brother. He turned into sobbing.

"He felt like he was inside the movie, ‘Office Space,’ " David recalled. "He’s not a crier, but he was crying this time like he had snot anywhere and couldn’t breathe. He stated, ‘I can’t take it anymore. I must be on the soccer area.’ "

At Jets camp Friday, the educate defined, "I felt like I was stuck in a cage, and the best manner I may want to get out is that if I pressured my manner out."

The Salehs had been all soccer players at Fordson High in Dearborn. The father, Sam, turned into a hell of a prospect who wrecked his knee even as trying to make the roster of the Chicago Bears. David described himself as a serviceable and reliable tight give up and defensive quit at Fordson. Robert became higher than that; he have become a Division II star at Northern Michigan.

After David’s near-dying revel in, Robert commenced seeing each day as a treasured gift that couldn't be wasted. He cherished soccer, and he needed it again in his existence. So he reached out to the big brother, who had driven him to his first Fordson exercise in his Camaro, and who used to wake him up at 2 a.M. And feed him peanut butter and jelly sandwiches to feature weight to his thin body.

They talked that day at the telephone, and talked some greater head to head after David summoned Robert domestic. Big brother became always little brother’s confidant and excellent friend. Coaching, they determined, became the answer.

"I knew it was going to be a adventure," Robert stated. "I just knew this turned into the existence I changed into speculated to have."

Robert Saleh began at the bottom of the Michigan State personnel, and these kinds of years later, he has ended up at the pinnacle of an NFL franchise. David, an investor and home mortgage officer, can’t wait to be there in the flesh Sunday to observe the incredible dream come to life. He has a pregnant wife due to provide beginning next month, and his house is underneath protection, but not anything should preserve him from Robert’s head education debut.

David is scheduled to take an early Saturday morning flight to Charlotte. Though he felt some trepidation over flying on the 20th anniversary of Sept. 11, in the long run, David stated, "I feel like a child going to Disney World."

It’s going to be a wild trip for the Salehs, and a secure bet says David may be Robert’s keeper for every twist and flip.

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