by Dave Daily

The police in Nashville ruled that former NFL star Steve McNair was shot dead in his sleep last week by his 20-year old girlfriend, who then turned the gun on herself.

Nobody will ever know what went through the head of Sahel Kazemi before she decided to end the life of McNair, a man who helped her buy a condo and car. A man she met six months ago at a restaurant where she was a waitress and his family often ate.

She reportedly told a friend on Friday, the day before the murder, that she wanted to end her life. Financial problems shouldn’t cause a person to end not only their life, but their loved ones. Now investigators have discovered that Kazemi thought that McNair was romantically involved with another woman and followed her home.

Could this be more than a crime of passion? Does this make any sense that a man who had four children, was not only cheating on his wife, but his girlfriend?

The life of Steve McNair was full of stories of his courage on the football field and of his kindness off of it. Many athletes have charities that are just tax shelters. It’s great to put your name to a charity to enhance your image. Some take it very seriously and put their money where their mouths are. Apparently McNair did a lot of charitable work.

He put up a career that’s worthy of consideration to the Hall of Fame. He threw for over 30,000 yards and ran for over 3,000. There’s just two other quarterbacks in history (Steve Young and Fran Tarkenton) who accomplished those feats. If you judge a quarterback by his passer rating, then McNair may fall short of the Hall of Fame. If you judge one by heart, leadership and his ability to win in a conservative offense without many weapons, he’s a Hall of Famer.

Now he won’t be able to repair his image. Most of the fans in Tennessee and to a lesser extent Baltimore, will remember his play on the field. They will focus on what happened on the field and not what took place at the end of his life.

The case is over and hopefully so is the dirt regarding McNair’s personal life.