Steve "Air" McNair - A Tribute

I remember hearing announcers during a Ravens game say he could barely breath at night from the pain in his ribs and wasn’t sleeping because of it yet still started against the Steelers.

The guy had guts and gave a lot back to the community. I will always be a fan.

My father and brother and I went to the Alcorn St.-Jackson St. game at MVM Stadium to see him play. I didn’t really want to go, but my dad insisted. The place was absolutely jam-packed with people — people sitting cheek-to-cheek on the bleachers, people on every step, filling every walkway, every tunnel — just like sardines.

Of the 62,000+, there were a few hundred white people. Maybe a thousand. Unlike most other times, the whites couldn’t segregate themselves; it was simply too crowded. We (the whites) sat in isolated pockets as families and pairs smattered around the stadium. The three of us were the only white faces in our section that I could see. But it was all good. Everyone around us (mostly JSU fans) was fired up, happy, talking hilarious smack and just carrying on (black people who shout at the screen in movies are annoying, but when they’re shouting at the players from 60 rows up, that’s some funny shit).

Yes, we were nervous walking in that place, but by the time the game started, everything was great. We were all fans. Seriously — it was a really educational and eye-opening experience that kind of rewired my head about racial stereotypes. Many of my own prejudices were laid aside forever because of that game, so in a sense, I have Steve McNair to thank for that.
But I digress.

All that being said, I don’t remember much about the game. I don’t even remember who won (thought I could Google it, I guess). What I distinctly remember is how remarkably unequal McNair’s receivers were to the task of catching his laser-rocket passes. I remember one pass in particular — a 30 yard frozen rope that Brett Favre would’ve been proud to claim — that hit the receiver on a deep crossing pattern squarely in the chest (it was perfect NFL throw), but it had such velocity that the guy couldn’t even get his hands on it. It ricocheted straight up about 30 feet in the air and was picked off. We saw lots of passes that were good throws that were just dropped, missed, or went bouncing off pads.

We left that game convinced that If McNair had had any kind of decent receivers — if he had gone to Florida, say, and played under Steve Spurrier with that kind of talent around him — he would own every passing record in the NCAA, and he would own them for a long, long time. We knew he was the real deal, and was worthy of the hype. Being Ole Miss fans, we were also annoyed that we missed out on this guy, too. This was around the time Joe Lee Dunn was our head coach and we were probation and generally sucked.

I am so glad that my dad convinced me to go to that game now. McNair was a great player and a great ambassador for our state. I’m proud that I saw him play in Mississippi. We need more people like him.