Steve McNair
The loss of Steve McNair is going to be hard for the community of Nashville to process. It is definitely difficult for my wife, who embraced the Titans with her heart and soul as they arrived in Tennessee about the same time she did. While she had a childhood football romance with Walter Payton, she had a long relationship with Steve McNair who she cheered for week after week for many years.
I, too, cheered along side of her for many of those years. He was not my first, that honor goes to Joe Montana in the 1980s. But Steve McNair was almost everything you could ask for from a football player on the field. He led his team with toughness and determination. He took hits that would make mere NFL quartebacks fall to pieces. Heck the hits often made the 275 pound defensive lineman, who expected their target, a quarterback, to collapse like a blowup halloween decoration, more banged up and bewildered from the encounter. This was because, often, McNair was still standing after the hit.
He gave his team the quarterback it needed. Early in his career, it was the quarterack who handed the ball off to Eddie George who lugged the team slowly down the field. When Eddie George was stopped, Steve McNair used his chemistry with Frank Wycheck and Derreck Mason to get the job done with plan be. As Eddie George began to break down at the end of his career, McNair became that 300 yard passer that is the mark of the top NFL quarterbacks, and he started earning Pro Bowl and MVP awards. He steadily improved his skills as the team needed him to.
At the end of his run with the Titans, McNair became an economic liability. The Titan failed to reward their trinity of offensive talent with new contracts (George, Mason, and McNair). Even though McNair had made personal concessions to help get the team under the salary cap in its years of being a Super Bowl contender, when puch came to shove, the Titans drafted and signed Vince Young and decided that they could not also sign Steve McNair. McNair moved on to the division rivals, the Baltimore Ravens, and reunited with his old receiver Mason. My wife attended a game with McNair quaterbacking against the Titan for the Ravens. She toyed with the idea of buying two jerseys, one Titans and one Ravens, that were McNair Jerseys, and sewing them together top to bottom as half and half Ravens/Titans McNair jerseys. Our finances wouldn't allow her to do that then. This is a regret of hers today.
McNair had taken too many hits by the time he went on to the Ravens. His successes were limited for that team. He walked off the field as a man who did what his team asked him to do and did not distract his team with selfishness.
I tremendously respect the way McNair played football. Few, if any other quarterbacks could have played this game the way he did. He was who his time needed him to be, whatever that may be. The Titans nation has lost its flagship player. Be patient with Nashville if we interrupt the Michael Jackson mourning with a deep period of mourning for this sports star. The community has emraced this team like a member of its family. And this team lost its most important family member in the history of the Nashville chapter of the franchise and one of the handful of greats in the history of the franchise.
I, too, cheered along side of her for many of those years. He was not my first, that honor goes to Joe Montana in the 1980s. But Steve McNair was almost everything you could ask for from a football player on the field. He led his team with toughness and determination. He took hits that would make mere NFL quartebacks fall to pieces. Heck the hits often made the 275 pound defensive lineman, who expected their target, a quarterback, to collapse like a blowup halloween decoration, more banged up and bewildered from the encounter. This was because, often, McNair was still standing after the hit.
He gave his team the quarterback it needed. Early in his career, it was the quarterack who handed the ball off to Eddie George who lugged the team slowly down the field. When Eddie George was stopped, Steve McNair used his chemistry with Frank Wycheck and Derreck Mason to get the job done with plan be. As Eddie George began to break down at the end of his career, McNair became that 300 yard passer that is the mark of the top NFL quarterbacks, and he started earning Pro Bowl and MVP awards. He steadily improved his skills as the team needed him to.
At the end of his run with the Titans, McNair became an economic liability. The Titan failed to reward their trinity of offensive talent with new contracts (George, Mason, and McNair). Even though McNair had made personal concessions to help get the team under the salary cap in its years of being a Super Bowl contender, when puch came to shove, the Titans drafted and signed Vince Young and decided that they could not also sign Steve McNair. McNair moved on to the division rivals, the Baltimore Ravens, and reunited with his old receiver Mason. My wife attended a game with McNair quaterbacking against the Titan for the Ravens. She toyed with the idea of buying two jerseys, one Titans and one Ravens, that were McNair Jerseys, and sewing them together top to bottom as half and half Ravens/Titans McNair jerseys. Our finances wouldn't allow her to do that then. This is a regret of hers today.
McNair had taken too many hits by the time he went on to the Ravens. His successes were limited for that team. He walked off the field as a man who did what his team asked him to do and did not distract his team with selfishness.
I tremendously respect the way McNair played football. Few, if any other quarterbacks could have played this game the way he did. He was who his time needed him to be, whatever that may be. The Titans nation has lost its flagship player. Be patient with Nashville if we interrupt the Michael Jackson mourning with a deep period of mourning for this sports star. The community has emraced this team like a member of its family. And this team lost its most important family member in the history of the Nashville chapter of the franchise and one of the handful of greats in the history of the franchise.