The Death of Steve McNair

All the different articles on the death of Steve McNair on one site, so you don't have to jump around on the net!! Good man caught in a love fest with a young woman who probably shot him, then herself!!



NASHVILLE, Tenn. - Steve McNair earned the respect of his fellow NFL players for shaking off defenders and injuries. That same blue-collar playing style won the love of fans amazed at how the quarterback kept showing up for work — and winning.

He endeared himself more with his charity work. Not just from the checks he handed out, but for throwing himself into the efforts, like he did when loading boxes onto tractor-trailers bound for Hurricane Katrina victims.

Publicly, McNair was a happily married man and proud father of four sons who split his time between his Mississippi farm and a home in Music City, where celebrities are cherished, not hassled.
But when he was found shot to death on the Fourth of July with his 20-year-old girlfriend dead nearby, a darker side of his private life was suddenly thrust into the spotlight.

“People have certain things that they do in life,” said McNair’s longtime friend Robert Gaddy, who called 911. “We don’t need to look on the situation at this time (but) on the fact we just lost a great member of society.”

Even McNair’s longtime agent said he didn’t know about the former quarterback’s relationship with Saleh Kazemi until news broke of the deaths. Now police call McNair the victim of homicide, though they aren’t yet ready to label Kazemi’s death a suicide despite her single bullet wound to the head.

“As good as he was on the football field, that couldn’t touch the person,” agent Bus Cook said Sunday, still shaken by McNair’s death. “I mean it just couldn’t.”

Hints of a problem with alcohol surfaced in May 2003 when a Nashville police officer pulled McNair over on suspicion of drunk driving. Police said the quarterback’s blood alcohol content was .18 percent — well over Tennessee’s legal limit. He also was charged for having a 9mm weapon with him, but all the charges were later dropped.

McNair was charged with drunken driving in 2007 because he let his brother-in-law drive his pickup truck. Those charges were later dropped when the DUI charge against the brother-in-law was reduced to reckless driving.

And McNair could have been charged again Thursday night when the same officer who arrested him in 2003 stopped a 2007 Cadillac Escalade driven by Kazemi and registered to both her and McNair. Kazemi was arrested on a DUI charge, and he was allowed to leave in a taxi.

Dr. Sherry Blake, a clinical psychologist who practices in the Atlanta area, has counseled athletes and entertainers about the temptations of easy drugs, alcohol and women. She talked Sunday about the challenges even for those with strong family ties, though not about the McNair case specifically.

“Individuals can’t get enough of the limelight. It’s easy to have people telling you how great and wonderful you are rather than otherwise,” Blake said.
“The sad part is many times the public likes to be close to you not because of who you are but what you do.”

On the football field, he simply was “Air McNair,” a winner.

McNair still holds the NCAA’s Football Championship Series (formerly Division I-AA) records for career yards passing (14,496) and total offense (16,823) from his days at tiny Alcorn State in Mississippi.

He played 13 NFL seasons starting with the then-Houston Oilers, led Tennessee to its famous last-second 2000 Super Bowl loss to the St. Louis Rams. He ended his career in Baltimore last season, after being traded away by the Titans after they drafted Vince Young as a replacement to the aching and expensive veteran.
A four-time Pro Bowler, he shared the NFL’s MVP award with Peyton Manning in 2003.

“Many of our defensive players talked about what a huge challenge it was playing against him,” Manning said in a statement. “He and I had some great battles against each other.”
McNair never acknowledged any of his numerous injuries on the field, even in one game when the painkilling shot wore off before he drove the Titans to a touchdown and ran in for the tying 2-point conversion. Then he led them to the winning field goal.
Young called McNair, a father figure since Young was a teenager, “Pops.”

“I hear his advice in my head with everything I do. Life will be very different without him,” Young said in a statement.

McNair’s friends want the quarterback to be remembered for his generosity. He gave away turkeys and checks in Tennessee, toys in Baltimore and paid for three football camps himself this year. Cook talked to someone Saturday who saw McNair cleaning up the field after one camp at Southern Mississippi.
“That was Steve McNair. That’s who he is. And who he was,” an emotional Cook recalled.

Cook described Mechelle, who married McNair in 1997, as “very upset, very distraught.” Funeral arrangements could be completed Monday with some of McNair’s family coming to Nashville to assist planning.

Nashville courts had no record of a McNair divorce case, but a home he owned in Nashville is on the market for $3 million.

The real estate agent declined to comment. Her online listing for property described it as a “gigantic house” of more than 14,000 square feet and photos showed a pool, home theater, baby grand piano and ornate furnishings throughout.

Kimberly Hardy visited a restaurant McNair recently opened near Tennessee State University to provide healthy, affordable food for college students. The Nashville woman said McNair had been nice to her the handful of times she met him. She said she hated what had happened to him.

“But I do think that all the greatness he accomplished will endure forever,” Hardy said.




Report: McNair's Wife Didn't Know About Girlfriend

Though there has been a vague presumption that the wife of slain NFL quarterback Steve McNair was aware that he had a girlfriend, a report in the New York Daily News indicates that this simply wasn't the case.

Tim Ghianni and Jonathan Lemire of the Daily News report that Mechelle McNair didn't know that her late husband was dating 20-year-old Sahel Kazemi.

"She's blindsided by this," one source said. "She's crushed. Her whole world is shattered."

The fact that Mechelle McNair didn't know combined with a claim from Kazemi's family that McNair would soon be divorcing his wife could point to a set of facts in which McNair was trying to break things off with Kazemi, who while under the influence of alcohol (or something else) might have reacted irrationally -- and violently -- to the news.

But where did the gun come from? It possibly belonged to McNair, who might have left the thing laying around without ever considering that the girl he was dating would use it on him.

Regardless of how this all shakes out, 15 years after a former NFL star found himself accused of killing his ex-wife and her friend, a former NFL star is the victim in a murder mystery that might be as simple as it all seems, or that might end up being a lot more complex.



Cops say Kazemi bought gun
NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- Police say the gun found at the scene where former NFL star Steve McNair died was bought by his girlfriend less than two days before the two were shot to death.

Nashville police spokesman Don Aaron said Monday that 20-year-old Sahel Kazemi bought the semiautomatic handgun Thursday evening from a person he didn't name.


An autopsy showed that McNair and Kazemi died early Saturday. He was shot four times and his death has been ruled a homicide. She was shot once and Aaron said police are still waiting for ballistics and gunpowder-residue tests before deciding if she was slain or committed suicide.

Their bodies were found in a Nashville condominium that overlooks the Tennessee Titans' stadium and was leased by McNair, who was 36.

Aaron said that as far as he knows McNair was not with Kazemi when she got the gun.

Farzin Abdi, a nephew of Kazemi, said earlier Monday he does not believe Kazemi would have killed former Titans quarterback McNair and herself.

"There was no way she was depressed and wanting to do this," he said. "She was so happy. ... She just had it made, you know, [with] this guy taking care of everything."

Abdi said Kazemi had no motive to kill McNair.

Aaron said a solution to the case may not be as neatly resolved as people would like.

"It may be we'll never know exactly why this happened," he said.

McNair had been dating Kazemi for several months. They were found dead by McNair's friend Wayne Neeley, who had rented the condo along with McNair. Neeley then called a friend, Robert Gaddy, who played at Alcorn State with McNair. Gaddy dialed 911.

Aaron said Sunday that a semiautomatic pistol was found under Kazemi's body. She was shot in the head. McNair was discovered in a seated position on a sofa in the living room, shot twice in the head and two more times in the chest.

Abdi said Kazemi believed McNair was divorcing his wife and Kazemi was preparing to sell her furniture to move in with him.

"I think she had already put her stuff up for sale on Craigslist," Abdi said.

Appearing at a news conference Monday at Titans headquarters, a somber coach Jeff Fisher said, "The Steve McNair I knew would want me to say, 'Celebrate my life, for what I did on the field, for what I did in the community, for the kind of teammate that I was.' That's what the Steve I knew would want me to say."

Fisher had been in Iraq as part of an NFL trip last week to visit the military. His cell phone service resumed after the group landed in Kuwait, and Fisher noticed a string of calls had come in when Eddie George called and wound up informing the coach of McNair's death.

Fisher said he's still shocked by McNair's death at 36.

"This is hard. This is hard on everybody. This is not an easy thing. There will be a void. Again, I'll fill that void with those memories. That's what we have to do," Fisher said.

A public memorial and viewings are scheduled later this week for McNair. The public will have a couple of opportunities to attend viewings in Nashville on Thursday and a memorial will be held later that evening at Mount Zion Baptist Church.

A second memorial service will be held Saturday at Reed Green Coliseum in Hattiesburg, Miss., on the campus of the University of Southern Mississippi. McNair, 36, was from Mount Olive, a small town nearby.

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.

"That's a very important part of the investigation as we work to ultimately classify Miss Kazemi's death," Aaron said.

The details surfacing after McNair's death stand in stark contrast to the public persona he enjoyed during his career.

McNair repeatedly played through serious injuries and pain to win, though he came up a yard short of forcing overtime on the Titans' famous drive to lose the 2000 Super Bowl.

Generous, he frequently took part in charity work for both the Titans and later the Baltimore Ravens after a 2006 trade. McNair even helped load donated food, water and clothes onto tractor-trailers that he had arranged for Hurricane Katrina victims, and paid for three football camps for children himself this year.

Mechelle McNair, his wife of 12 years and mother of two of his four sons born between 1991 and 2004, has been described by police as very distraught about his death and has not commented on it.

Some close to McNair -- his brother Fred and his agent, Bus Cook -- have said they knew nothing of Kazemi before the shootings. Fisher said Monday, "The Steve that I knew, if he were here right now, would want to say, 'Mechelle, I love you.'"

According to the New York Daily News, which cited unnamed sources close to McNair, his wife may have been unaware of the affair until learning of the circumstances of his death.

"She's blindsided by this," the newspaper quoted a source as saying of Mechelle McNair. "She's crushed. Her whole world is shattered."

Cook said Mechelle was "in and out of it." He said she had no comment after the police called his death a homicide.

No court records of divorce proceedings have surfaced so far. The strongest public evidence that the McNairs might have been estranged is that their 14,000-square-foot Nashville home has been up for sale recently, listed at $3 million.

McNair split his time between Nashville and his farm in Mount Olive. He recently opened a restaurant near Tennessee State University that was aimed at serving healthy, affordable food to college students.

In retirement, McNair had opened Gridiron9 near the Tennessee State University campus. It sells deep-fried hot dogs for $3.50, Cajun catfish sandwiches for $6.50 and Southern-style chicken strips for $6.75.

Television news footage showed McNair putting used trays away inside the eatery after dumping scraps in a trash can.

"He had a sweet spirit," Kimberly Hardy, a 25-year-old McNair admirer, said outside the restaurant, where mourners have been gathering and leaving flowers and writing notes on the front window.

The night before he died, McNair went alone to the Blue Moon Lagoon Restaurant where he met another couple around 10:30 p.m. and then left by himself about 1 a.m., said James Weathers, manager of the restaurant.

Weathers said McNair visited there occasionally and "was always alone, but he'd meet a group of friends." The manager described McNair as always friendly, "never a big drinker," gracious with constant photo-seekers.

McNair met Kazemi when his family ate often at the Dave & Buster's restaurant she worked at as a server, and the two began dating in a relationship that included a vacation with parasailing. Photos posted on TMZ.com showed McNair gazing and smiling at the young Kazemi.

McNair was also seen so often at Kazemi's apartment that a neighbor thought he lived there.

"She pretty obviously got mixed up way over her head with folks," said Reagan Howard, one of Kazemi's neighbors.

Earlier this year, Kazemi and McNair took trips to Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Key West, Fla., and Mississippi, said Abdi, the nephew. McNair had been seen at Kazemi's Nashville apartment two to three times a week.

"They were together all the time unless he was taking his kids on vacation," Abdi said.

Kazemi was born in Iran but left in 2000, fleeing religious persecution for her family's Baha'i faith, Abdi said. They spent 2½ years in Turkey before moving to Florida. Later Kazemi dropped out of high school and, at age 17, moved with a boyfriend to Nashville, where she sometimes worked two or three jobs to support herself.

She liked not depending on anyone for money, and she told her nephew that McNair admired her independent nature.

"He liked her so much because they would go shopping and stuff and she would want to spend her own money," Abdi said. "The reason he said he loves her is because she's not trying to use him like other girls. She was different from other girls he had been with."




Woman with McNair bought gun, was likely shooter, police say

NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- Police say the gun found at the scene where former NFL star Steve McNair died was bought by his girlfriend less than two days before the two were shot to death.

Nashville police spokesman Don Aaron said Monday that 20-year-old Sahel Kazemi bought the semiautomatic handgun Thursday evening from a person he didn't name.

An autopsy showed that McNair and Kazemi died early Saturday. He was shot four times and his death has been ruled a homicide. She was shot once and Aaron said police are still waiting for ballistic and gunpowder residue tests before deciding if she was slain or committed suicide.

Their bodies were found in a Nashville condominium leased by McNair, who was 36.

Aaron said that as far as he knows McNair was not with Kazemi when she got the gun.

Kazemi's relative, Farzin Abdi, said police told him they are almost sure Kazemi was the shooter, but the 27-year-old nephew said he doesn't believe she would do it.

"There was no way she was depressed and wanting to do this," he said. "She was so happy. ... She just had it made, you know, [with] this guy taking care of everything."

Nashville police didn't immediately have a response to Abdi's comments.

Abdi said Kazemi believed McNair was divorcing his wife and she was preparing to sell her furniture to move in with him.

Nashville courts had no record of a McNair divorce case, but a 14,000-square-foot home he owned in Nashville is on the market for $3 million.

Mechelle McNair has been described as very distraught about her husband's death and has not commented on it.
Before their deaths, the public knew nothing of Kazemi's relationship with McNair, a star who had earned the respect of his fellow NFL players for shaking off defenders and injuries and the love of fans amazed at how the quarterback kept showing up for work -- and winning.

He endeared himself further with his charity work. Not just from the checks he handed out, but for throwing himself into the efforts, like he did when loading boxes onto tractor-trailers bound for Hurricane Katrina victims.

Publicly, McNair was a happily married man and proud father of four sons who split his time between his Mississippi farm and a home in Music City, where celebrities are cherished, not hassled.

His death, however, thrust a darker side of his private life into the spotlight.

"People have certain things that they do in life," said McNair's longtime friend Robert Gaddy, who called 911. "We don't need to look on the situation at this time (but) on the fact we just lost a great member of society."

Even McNair's longtime agent said he didn't know about the former quarterback's relationship with Kazemi.

"As good as he was on the football field, that couldn't touch the person," agent Bus Cook said Sunday, still shaken by McNair's death. "I mean it just couldn't."

Hints of a problem with alcohol surfaced in May 2003 when a Nashville police officer pulled McNair over on suspicion of drunk driving. Police said the quarterback's blood alcohol content was 0.18 percent -- well over Tennessee's legal limit. He also was charged with having a 9mm weapon with him, but all the charges were later dropped.

McNair was charged with drunken driving in 2007 because he let his brother-in-law drive his pickup truck. Those charges were later dropped when the DUI charge against the brother-in-law was reduced to reckless driving.

And McNair could have been charged again Thursday night when the same officer who arrested him in 2003 stopped a 2007 Cadillac Escalade driven by Kazemi and registered to both her and McNair. Kazemi was arrested on a DUI charge, and he was allowed to leave in a taxi.

Police labeled his death a homicide Sunday, revealing McNair had been shot four times -- twice in the head, twice in the chest -- when found in a rented condominium he shared with a longtime friend, Wayne Neeley. Police found a semiautomatic pistol under Kazemi's body.

But police spokesman Don Aaron said they were reviewing every possibility, interviewing friends of both and an ex-boyfriend before labeling Kazemi's death.

On the football field, he simply was "Air McNair," a winner.

McNair still holds the NCAA's Football Championship Series (formerly Division I-AA) records for career yards passing (14,496) and total offense (16,823) from his days at tiny Alcorn State in Mississippi.

He played 13 NFL seasons, starting with the then-Houston Oilers, and led Tennessee to its famous last-second 2000 Super Bowl loss to the St. Louis Rams. He ended his career in Baltimore last season, after being traded away by the Titans after they drafted Vince Young as a replacement to the aching and expensive veteran.

McNair's friends want the quarterback to be remembered for his generosity. He gave away turkeys and checks in Tennessee, toys in Baltimore and paid for three football camps himself this year. Cook talked to someone Saturday who saw McNair cleaning up the field after one camp at Southern Mississippi.

"That was Steve McNair. That's who he is. And who he was," an emotional Cook recalled.

A viewing will be held Thursday at a Nashville funeral home, followed by another viewing at Mount Zion Baptist Church with a memorial service Thursday night. A funeral service will be held Saturday in Mississippi, but final details were not set.

McNair met Kazemi at the Dave & Buster's restaurant where she worked as a server and where his family ate often. The two began dating a few months ago in a relationship that included a vacation with parasailing. Photos posted on TMZ.com showed McNair gazing and smiling at the young Kazemi.