I was just thinking...

This is certainly not a rush to judgment, nor is it meant to be an attempt to vilify anyone especially since I don’t have all the facts. But since I can’t be silent, I’ll simply stick to discussing what we all already know because it’s been reported in the press. Steve McNair, former NFL MVP and quarterback of the Tennessee Titans, is dead! He was found on the sofa in the living room of a condo he co-rents with a friend. He had multiple gunshot wounds including a fatal shot to the head. On the floor, not far from Steve’s body, was the body of 20-year-old Sahel Kazemi, a “friend” of McNair’s, dead from a single gunshot wound to the head.

Recently I blogged on leaving a legacy as I reflected on the deaths of Michael Jackson and Farrah Fawcett, and on how it’s so much easier to be remembered more for the negative things that stand out in most people’s minds, regardless of whatever else it is you may have done well. Quoting McNair’s ‘condo-mate’ (who reportedly discovered the dead bodies), an NBC Sports report stated “Aaron said McNair’s wife, Mechelle, is “very distraught.”” Wow, thanks Aaron for stating the patently obvious! Sadly, what we really do need to know, we don’t know. We don’t know the who, the why, the when and so many other details of this dark tale. So the “million dollar” question is: what do we know?

We know that Steve McNair, 36, was married with children

We know that Steve McNair, 36, was found dead alongside a 20-year-old girl (Kazemi) purported to be his girlfriend.

We know that “Two days ago, Nashville police arrested Kazemi on a DUI charge while driving a 2007 Escalade registered to her and McNair.”

We know that the arrest affidavit said “Kazemi had bloodshot eyes and the smell of alcohol on her breath, but refused a breathalyzer test, saying “she was not drunk, she was high.””

We know that “McNair and his family frequented the restaurant where Kazemi was a waitress” and that “McNair and Kazemi met at the restaurant.”

We know that Steve McNair has left a widow and four sons asking questions that may never be answered.

So my question is: Was it worth it? Is this the legacy that Steve envisioned leaving for his sons as he raised them into young men? Having examined all that we do know, I’m still left with more questions than answers, and I’m saddened that all too often our lives are so self-serving and self-absorbed to the detriment of those that mean the most to us. Are Steve’s sons supposed to remember their dad as the man who loved and protected their family, or as the adulterous husband found shot to death alongside a lover almost half his age?