Report: Confirmation Of Murder Suicide

By Kleinheider Posted on July 8, 2009 at 11:48 am

Channel 5 says TBI has handed in its report to Metro Police on the murder of Steve McNair:

NewsChannel 5 has learned that Metro police received an initial report from the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation that appears to confirm theories of a murder-suicide in the deaths of former Titans quarterback Steve McNair and girlfriend Sahel Kazemi.

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Tags: confirmation, Jenny Kazemi, murder, murder suicide, Sahel Kazemi, Steve McNair  

The Steve McNair Jenny Kazemi Knew

By Kleinheider Posted on July 6, 2009 at 10:02 pm

Jeff Fisher, Eddie George and others are all over the media talking about the death of Steve McNair. The tear-filled press conferences, the hour-long tributes featuring slow motion highlights, the reminders of his charity work — it’s all very moving.

It truly is. Steve McNair was a great athlete and he helped create and nurture a pro football tradition in Nashville. For that he should be recognized and commended.

But let’s not get carried away with the hero worship here.

This is a man who carried out an extramartial affair with a nineteen year-old girl. He bought her a car and secured himself a second residence where he could carry out his separate existence from his wife and his children.

Some will say we should not judge McNair by his private misdeeds. Everyone makes mistakes after all. No one is perfect.

That’s right, no one is perfect — least of all me. But did Steve McNair even try?

If bullets were never fired at that Rutledge Hill condo, I suppose we could go on believing the image that McNair and the Titans and others had constructed around him.

But those bullets were fired and they opened up McNair’s dirty little secrets to the world and his lifestyle has become public domain. It would be better if it hadn’t happened that way. It would have been better if we could have remembered him only as the family man, the football hero, and the man of charity.

Unfortunately, we can’t do that. We know things now that we cannot unknow. And, frankly, it is a little disconcerting to watch as some folks attempt to put the toothpaste back in the tube.

Even if he weren’t married, McNair’s relationship with Kazemi was more than a bit shady. Yes, Jenny Kazemi was of legal age and, as far as we know, consenting. But if Steve McNair was the “great man” everyone is now eulogizing, what was he doing shacking up with a 19 year old high school dropout?

Let’s get real. Kazemi’s background screams vulnerability and emotional immaturity. No, McNair did nothing legally wrong by bedding this woman, other than violating the terms of his marriage contract, but, my God, were these the actions of an upstanding member of the community?

For McNair to shower this young woman, essentially a child, with gifts, affection and attention, all the while allowing her to operate under the delusion, according to reports, that he would marry her, is the height of emotional cruelty.

Steve McNair is a 36 year-old father of four. He is a former professional football player and respected member of the community. Obviously, no one can truly know the actual relationship between two people but I think we can make some reasonable assumptions about the interpersonal dynamics at work here.

This, for the “Steve McNair that Jeff Fisher knew“, was not a proper relationship to be pursuing.

Jenny Kazemi is responsible for her actions, whatever they were. No one is saying she isn’t. But I find it hard to reconcile these glowing public tributes for a man who lived at least part of his life as though he were a character on the Sopranos.

Let’s not kid ourselves. Charity work cannot paper over what this was. This was a man using his power, position and money to get over on at least one vulnerable young woman.

I cannot reconcile in my mind the tributes of him with the knowledge of the lifestyle he led. I’m not saying the man should be trashed but if we give this man the honor and the glory due a “great man” do we not end up condoning the behavior he engaged in?

After all, we live in a free country where anyone is allowed to pursue the most happiness they can without hurting anyone. That is how it should be. No one should tell anyone how to live.

We were required to allow Steve McNair to live the life he wanted. However, we were not required to accept him as “great man” for doing so. A certain amount of social stigma is what keeps free societies from devolving into amoral anarchy.

Let’s also keep in mind that just as Kazemi was at a disadvantage with McNair in life, she is also at a disadvantage in death.

She did not have a career of note. She did not build a brand that people relied on for their financial security. She was not beloved by many. In fact she is referred to in media reports by her given name Sahel, a name her friends did not call her.

We are asked to forget McNair’s transgressions and remember him in happier times on the field in his glory days. But we only know Kazemi at her worst, most tragic moment.

No one is saying that McNair’s name should be driven through the mud or his accomplishments tainted and discarded. No one is saying he deserved what he got. Nothing like that should be taken from this.

But the circumstances are the circumstances. He lived how he lived and he died how he died.

I can’t forget that, I don’t care how much film you roll from the good ole days.

SEE ALSO: GoldnI

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Tags: Jenny Kazemi, murder, murder suicide, Nashville, Sahel Kazemi, Steve McNair