We will ask them because that’s what we do. On fields and diamonds from Lewiston, Maine, to Los Angeles, we will ask them.What do you remember? Where were you when the planes hit the towers? What does Sept. 11 mean to you?The answers to the questions are changing.For most of the last 25 years, we have asked athletes to help in remembering the attack on our nation on Sept. 11, 2001. Now we are beginning to ask the generation that can’t.Many of the players participating in the ceremonies weren’t around 25 years ago. Those who were born may not be old enough to have the vivid recollections of an older generation.Nevertheless, they’ll stand along sidelines and baselines during moments of silence, wear commemorative patches and listen while names and stories from 2001 are recalled. The NFL will stencil “Never Forget” this weekend in end zones across the country.The reality is 25 years later, we are transitioning from “Never Forget” to “Never Let Them Forget.” We are moving from a time of remembrance to a time of teaching.NFL Week 1 has 'peak nonsense potential'Robert Mays and Derrik KlassenMy wife and I were driving home from a holiday weekend trip to Washington D.C. recently when we were passing the exit for the Flight 93 National Memorial. We got off the highway on a whim and drove the nearly 20 miles of winding roads through the Laurel Highlands region to visit the crash site.I wasn’t sure what I was expecting, but the scene was overwhelming. The memorial is incredibly well done. It was fairly crowded during our visit perhaps because it was Labor Day and so close to the anniversary. As videos of that day played on a loop in the visitors center and park rangers roamed both inside and outside answering questions about that day, I surveyed the room’s demographics and was struck by how many younger visitors had no vivid recall of the events.Time eventually does this to all of the world’s defining moments. Every generation has one, whether it was John F. Kennedy’s assassination or the attack on Pearl Harbor. Sports just provide a clear illustration of the evolution.Tom Brady was a 24-year-old backup quarterback when the planes struck the World Trade Center. He was early into his second NFL season and didn’t even take over the starting job until later that month. Now he’s retired and carried all those Super Bowl rings with him into the broadcast booth, clearing the way for league MVPs Patrick Mahomes and Josh Allen. Both were in kindergarten on 9/11. Brock Purdy and Trevor Lawrence were infants. Caleb Williams and C.J. Stroud weren’t even born yet.The Flight 93 National Memorial in Shanksville, Pa. (Jeff Swensen / Getty Images)Similarly, most current major leaguers were children or weren’t born when Mike Piazza slugged that memorable home run at Shea Stadium 10 days after the attacks. Someone has to explain to them why the crowd sounded different, that it was the first sporting event in New York after 9/11 and why Piazza rounding the bases became an enduring image. A regular-season home run in late September is still being discussed a quarter century later. They need to understand why.That’s how this works. We inherit the responsibility of the explanation.We need to explain that baseball legends like Bob Feller and Ted Williams’ career numbers aren’t as impressive as they could’ve been because both men sacrificed three years of their prime to go serve in World War II. Williams later lost two more seasons to the Korean War. Hank Greenberg entered the Army after winning his second MVP and lost three full years and parts of two others to war. All of them American heroes who happened to also be outstanding baseball players.