I don't get it, NFL. Is there something that playing football at the pro level does to people that causes stuff like this to happen? Steve "Air" McNair, 36 years young, was found dead yesterday from two gunshots to the head and two more to the chest. Police are ruling it a homicide (which I guess is what they get paid for, but talk about stating the obvious) and apparently feel that they can neither confirm nor deny that McNair's death was a murder-suicide, despite finding the corpse of McNair's mistress, Saleh Kazemi, dead from one gunshot to the head, laying on top of a semiautomatic right next to McNair. I guess it's possible to fake something like this, but why? More importantly, what the hell, Steve McNair?Testimonials about what a great guy he was are all over ESPN.com today; people like Peyton Manning, Warren Moon, teammates from all levels of his career describe his charity work and dedication to his teams and his community throughout his life in football. I'll personally never forget the Super Bowl in which he and the Titans were literally a yard short of tying the game.
And yet, here we are now, a few days after the man's death, unsure if he was murdered by a psycho mistress, or perhaps something even more salacious. I'll eat crow if it turns out not to be Option A, but this Kazemi girl (who was only 20 years old! 20!) seems to fit the profile of the Fatal Attraction-style crazy ho. The only comment the press received from her family came from her sister, who said that Kazemi believed McNair was going to divorce his wife so that they could be together. Just to be clear, here's a photo of McNair and Kazemi (best viewed while imagining a Flapjack-ian "AUGGGGHHHH!")
What the hell bro? This girl was 20 and looked like that? Did he think maybe she would become hotter down the road? I don't envy McNair's wife, who is definitely more attractive and, you know, his wife. Mother of their four kids, and all that. According to multiple news websites, she didn't know anything about this woman until after she and McNair were already dead, although I find that a little hard to believe, as gossip sites like TMZ and Bossip.com have pictures of the two on vacation together. Just two days before their deaths, Kazemi was pulled over while driving drunk (she claimed "I'm not drunk, I'm high!" according to ESPN's article, what a classy dame) in an Escalade that was registered to both her and McNair, with McNair sitting shotgun. McNair was allowed to leave, and bailed Kazemi out of jail shortly thereafter. Either she's in denial, which I guess is understandable, or she isn't very good at putting clues together.
This isn't the first time that McNair got himself in trouble for gun possession either, though obviously it's the most serious. What is it about playing in the NFL that makes otherwise normal, friendly-seeming individuals feel the need to carry weapons? McNair isn't the only NFL player to be involved in sundry activities, but the contrast with who the public seemed to think Steve McNair was and the Steve McNair who got himself killed dealing with crazy bitches is pretty stark. I don't have an answer to this question, obviously, and I don't think there's anything the NFL could really do about it even if the brass at the League really wanted to. Young men who make more money for playing a game than a lot of people make in a year, no matter how talented they may be, are still mortal. The saddest thing about this is not that it will be a black mark on McNair's legacy, but that if it wasn't for the persona that he had cultivated, this would be just another headline about just another thugged out NFL-er.
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