<p>This is a quote from the SI.com article (Sports Illustrated). It pretty much sums it up. I really feel for the wife and kids–so unfair for them to have to deal with this legacy. It will be hard for some to remember him the way we knew him last week. </p>
<p>Sounds like this selfish, immature, self centered 20 yo had visions of walking down the aisle with her BF? When it was clear he didn’t see eye to eye with this, she became enraged and decided to take two lives? Sorry, but he just should have kept it in his pants.</p>
<p>Typical celebrity—they live by their own rules. Having a wife and 4 kids doesn’t stop him from screwing around with a 20 year old girl. There are pictures of them vacationing together. It sure as heck doesn’t seem as though he was trying to hide the fact that he was hanging out with this girl. Does anyone honestly believe that this was his first affair or the first “other woman” that he’s had for his own satisfaction? I feel bad for his kids. They never had a choice in the matter. I have a hard time believing that his wife didn’t know about how he spent his time when he was away from the family over the years.</p>
<p>What a waste of 2 lives as well as emotional pain and baggage for his kids.</p>
<p>Boy- I guess it doesn’t suprise me that some of you are so quick to be judgmental. It seems pretty clear that Steve and his wife were separated. I am not condoning what he was doing, but the fact that he had a young girlfriend is not exactly new news for a star (former) football player. That doesn’t undo the good he has done for several communities and what kind of character he displayed in other areas of his life. This young woman (at least so far) does not seem to have been selfish, immature etc. Where are you getting that? She was 20 years old! That IS immature. She didn’t have the easiest life, and Steve talked to HER at the restaurant where she worked. It doesn’t exactly sound like it was a one night stand.
I don’t believe she killed him and herself. (I am frequently wrong about these thing). I just don’t see it that way based on the information we are getting here in Nashville.</p>
<p>He did some community service, was a great football player, and was able to project an image that people wanted to see. Typical celebrity–public image vs. real life. Sometimes the two lives are one and the same, but many times they are not. </p>
<p>Any life lost is a loss to society. I really feel bad for his kids. They’re the ones left with the baggage to carry around for the rest of their lives. It’s a very sad story for all involved.</p>
<p>Have they officially classified it as a murder suicide? I know that’s the big rumor, but I didn’t know if there were any verified reports out yet.</p>
<p>So sad, no one deserves such a tragic death :/</p>
<p>It wasn’t “some community service”. That’s the part you are missing. He truly gave back to the communities (plural). Maybe you have to be here to really understand that.
Doesn’t look like he tried too hard to hide the girlfriend, so I’m not sure what you mean about projecting an image people wanted to see. He was the real deal- just a real deal who happened to have a 20 year old girlfriend before he was divorced.</p>
<p>I don’t see the conflict between genuine community service and having a girlfriend while married. Is it just that one is good and the other is bad? I suppose if he was a member of PromiseKeepers it would be hypocrasy, but I don’t think that’s the issue here.</p>
<p>The best “gift” that McNair could have given his community would have been being a good role model for young black men, as in showing them how to be committed husbands and fathers. He definitely did not do this. Unfortunately, what he did do for the community will now be marred by the scandal around his tragic death. Hypocrisy isn’t the only thing that renders a behavior inappropriate, though it does seem to make it easier for others to judge.</p>
<p>purpleflurp- Did you click on the wrong button? This isn’t the political forum. I thought you only posted there!<br>
We don’t have any insight into his marriage- or whether he was getting divorced. Apparently he had vacations with is kids but not the wife recently. The family home was for sale. What was the wife’s role? Perhaps she wanted a divorce? We simply don’t know.<br>
It is unusual for a gun to wind up under a suicide victim because of the recoil. It is also unusual for a young female to use a gun. I think there is someone else involved, although the flip side is that the door to the condo was locked.</p>
<p>Purpleflurp, I read the first article you posted. Jay Marriotti wrote what many of us are thinking. And it is not that we live in glass houses and are throwing stones.</p>
<p>Even the Nashville news is reporting that the “friend” just recently bought a gun. </p>
<p>I don’t live in a glass house. I have been married 29 years, and have never dated someone or hooked up with someone during my marriage, and I don’t believe my disabled work-at-home husband has either. I have not been stopped for drunken driving, and either been charged or let off. I have never been in a car that was being driven by a driver who was drunk or high, and had to bail that person out. I have never been caught with a loaded gun that I did not have a permit for. I am also NOT a saint. But I don’t lead a double life. I would be formally separated from my spouse before I would spend enough time with a lover that the neighbors thought I lived there, if I had 4 kids under the age of 18. I would not fool around with a partner half my age, and buy him/her a car and put both names on it until there was a formal separation agreement. Sorry. But I followed Steve McNair’s career, and was a shocked as the next person. But the more I read, the sadder it was. And this is how John Q Public feels. And this is the legacy he is leaving for those unfortunate kids.</p>
<p>I suspect your social environment and cultural surroundings were somewhat different from Steve McNair’s as well. Yes, this is disappointing to many. It isn’t what any McNair supporters wanted to learn, but it just doesn’t strike me as being as far off center as many are now claiming.</p>
<p>Excellent post, and I agree 100%. No one is casting stones, but it is ok to read what has been reported and formulate an opinion about the person and the situation. That, too, is part of being human. I have a lot of sympathy for his children and his wife as they are the ones left to deal with not only the pain of his death, but also the ugliness of what appears to be a tainted legacy he is leaving behind. All around a very tragic situation. </p>
<p>McNair’s risky (and risque) behavior left him vulnerable to this tragedy and fully exposed to the shock that has followed when his supporters and fans found out about his double life. His lack of ethical behavior left him in a position that led to this tragedy. It was not something that randomly happened to him, like so many other tragic events that occur.</p>
<p>^^ I hope that if you are ever called for jury duty, you are honest in telling them that you can not be fair and that you have already formed an opinion about the case!</p>
<p>I haven’t heard the results of the ballistics test yet, but perhaps you have. Our police have not reached a conclusion as to who shot McNair and the girl. </p>
<p>Again, it doesn’t appear that he hid this relationship, so I don’t see the “double life”. It might not be a life of which we approve, but it doesn’t appear to be “double”.</p>
<p>I heard a report this afternoon that the gun found has been confirmed to be one that the girlfriend purchased recently. Can a 20 year old legally buy a gun? I can’t fathom why ANYone needs or wants a gun, let alone a 20 year old girl, but is it legal?</p>