You hate to speculate on such a thing, but it seems rather obvious that the death of former NFL MVP Steve McNair was a murder-suicide.
That murder part has been made official, as authorities in Nashville revealed Sunday that McNair had been shot twice in the head and two more times in the chest. Yet police won’t officially rule it a murder-suicide — even though his 20-year-old girlfriend was dead at his feet from a single bullet.
McNair had been dating Sahel Kazemi for several months, and Nashville police spokesman Don Aaron said Sunday that a semiautomatic pistol was found under her body. She was shot in the head.
McNair, who was married with four sons, had a permit to carry a handgun in Tennessee, and he was arrested once before with a 9mm weapon although charges in the case were dropped. Police said they had not yet determined who owned the gun found at the scene.
Investigators weren’t looking for a suspect but were questioning
friends of the couple as well as Kazemi’s ex-boyfriend. They were also
waiting for results of drug and other laboratory tests before deciding
whether McNair was killed in a lovers’ quarrel.
McNair apparently met the girl a year ago when she was a waitress at Dave & Buster’s, a place McNair frequented often with his family. There were no official signs that McNair was getting divorced, although his home in Nashville was on the market.
Meanwhile, current Titans QB Vince Young is pretty torn up over this shooting. Young met McNair when he was a teenager after being introduced by an uncle who played basketball at Alcorn State at the same time McNair played football at the school. McNair and Young remained in touch over the years and had spoken on a regular basis up to McNair’s death. Young was drafted by the Titans in April 2006 but never got to play with McNair, who was traded to the Ravens after playing from 1995-2005 with the organization.
“I’m still in shock,” Young said.”I spent all afternoon and night thinking about my life on and off the field with ‘Pops.’ Since I was a teenager, he was like a father to me. I hear his advice in my head with everything I do. Life will be very difficult without him.”
Other than perhaps Randall Cunningham and Doug Williams, no black quarterback has affected the NFL more than McNair. But McNair will be remembered more for his toughness than his numbers. Only three times in his career did McNair throw 20 or more touchdown passes, and he went over the 3,000-yard mark in less than half the seasons of his 13-year NFL tenure. He missed only eight games due to injury in his career.
McNair also led the Titans on 19 drives in which the team tied the game or took the lead with a score either inside the final two minutes of regulation or in overtime. There were 21 occasions, including three playoff contests, he rallied the Titans to victory from a fourth-quarter deficit or tie. Of course, the one rally he couldn’t complete was the most famous – that loss to the Rams on the 1-yard-line in Super Bowl XXXIV.
