Steve McNair

On July 4th, early in the morning, Steve McNair was shot and killed by a female companion, later determined to be his girlfriend. Being an avid football fan, I was immediately saddened by this. Add this to Michael’s death, as well as Farrah Fawcett, Ed McMahon, and Billy Mays, and it has been a sad two weeks. I know people die every day, and as a society we shouldn’t focus just on celebrities’ deaths. However, that is exactly what happens with everyone, including Steve McNair.

While it is an extremely horrific circumstance that he was shot and killed by his girlfriend who minutes after shot herself, I was surprised to find out that Steve was married at the time. After I read some reports on the incident, I got the impression that while Steve was married, he was either going through a divorce or was separated from his wife at the time, because he and his girlfriend were known to not try to hide their relationship. Apparently, he frequented her house a lot and spent nights there, and there are even photos of the two of them doing recreational activities, such as parasailing. Again, I only assumed that he and his wife were having marital problems. I thought to myself, if he was having an affair, then he would (presumably) go through the troubles of hiding it from not only his wife, but the media as well. When new reports began to surface, it was only then that I found out he was having an affair.

Just because he, or anyone else, was having an affair does not in any way justify being killed over it. But I couldn’t help but think to myself that he was killed because he was having an affair. Sadly, if he wasn’t with this woman, he wouldn’t have died. I understand that when somebody dies, it isn’t the best time to put blame on them. But I was quite surprised that no one mentioned this. Again, I didn’t expect the media to bash him when he wasn’t even buried yet. But I guess that I gave the media too little credit. And I am glad that his wife and kids were in attendance at the funeral. I didn’t expect them not to be. I am not trying to act morally superior to him. Not at all. This post doesn’t even have a topic and I don’t want to taint him as an individual (who even cares about as an athlete). And I don’t want to get into who deserves to die for their sins/crimes. But I just thought it was really sad that he was in the wrong place at the wrong time.

But was he? Yes, he could have been at the wrong time. But he wasn’t in the wrong place. He chose to be there.

I hope his family only remembers him for the father, son, husband that he was.