Steve McNair is dead. And it's a shame.
He was a very good, not great, quarterback who became the face of the Tennessee Titans franchise for nearly a decade. He came within inches of winning the city's only Super Bowl. He's one of the best African American quarterbacks to ever play in the NFL, and one of the better QBs to play in the league, no matter the color of his skin.
He constantly gave to charities, worked youth football camps, paid for many of those same camps in full and served the communities in which he played very, very well.
Again, Steve McNair's dead. And it's a shame.
But I'm done praising Steve McNair the football player. It's not fair to him, his family, the family of the young lady who was also killed, and anyone directly affected by the events of July 4.
No offense, but I can't praise Steve McNair the NFL Pro Bowler when I know he's dead because of some REALLY poor decisions in his personal life, and all it took was simply listening to his conscience and not following down the same path as so many other professional athletes.
In the end, in his retirement, the 36-year-old McNair couldn't help himself, and now it's truly the end. There are currently four boys in Mississippi right now who have to cope with not having a father, and a wife and mother who has to cope with not only losing her husband and the father of her kids, but a guy who clearly went outside his marriage to get together with a 20-year-old waitress in an affair that lasted for months.
For anyone with any moral fiber in their body, that should be when the praise of Steve McNair stops.
Yet, all day I've heard nothing but undying hero worship of the man. ESPN is on a 24-hour coverage kick of the "NFL Live" guys talking endlessly of how perfect and teriffic he was on the field, and how his ability to throw a football should be the only defining part of his life.
That, folks, is BS. The minute he entered into his extra-marital affair, his personal life decisions began to overshadow his play in NFL stadiums. At least for me it did.
When I think of some of the great plays he made during his many seasons, it's now impossible not to instantly think of the pictures of him and his new girlfriend out on vacation together, smiling and having a great time. The pictures were taken by TMZ, and they show a much different "Air McNair" than the one Trey Wingo and Mike Golic want us to remember. It shows a cheater and a liar (at least to some degree)openly engaging in an act that completely violates his marriage and puts his four kids on the backburner.
And now he's dead. And it's a shame.
Decisions a person makes when the cameras and/or attention aren't on them can often define that person, and in McNair's case, he will most likely be defined in a way other than what NFL analysts and former players would like. He can't escape being part of one of pro sports' ugliest statistics.
And if he's allowed by the media and fans to escape his fate as a man with definite personal flaws who went too far, then that's a serious indictment on the media and fans. And what if the Hall-of-Fame comes knocking someday? That's even worse.
In the long run, Steve McNair was a very good football player for a lot of years, and people should remember that part of his life. But just a small part. What he should ultimately be remembered for, fair or not, is what he did in his personal life that so greatly hurt his own family.
Steve McNair is dead. And it's a shame.
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