The Mysterious Death of a Titan

Lester Holt Anchor • Profile

Nashville, Tenn., Saturday. The fourth day of an unusually cool July. Reporter Josh Devine wasn't all that happy to be going to work.

Josh Devine: I had friends who were going to be barbecuing, like everybody else was on the fourth of July.  But had to be here.  So I walked in the door at 2:00, like I normally do.  Sat down at my desk.  Started checking e-mail.

It promised to be a slow countdown to the nighttime fireworks.  And then...

Josh Devine: We had heard a little bit of scanner traffic about this shooting in downtown Nashville with two victims.  And so, your ears always perk up when you hear that kind of thing.

Before Devine could even get out the door to check it out, the news got much, much bigger.

Josh Devine: We got a phone call from one of our reporters who had said, "I have it on good authority that this might be Steve McNair. 

Steve McNair.  In Nashville, he was a household name, a local hero. A titan.

Josh Devine: My initial reaction was, "What?  You've got to be kidding me."

Steve McNair had quarterbacked the Tennessee Titans to the 2000 Superbowl.  Known for his courage on the field – and his grace and charity off it. McNair was 36-- just a year into what promised to be a long and prosperous retirement.

Devine rushed to the reported scene of the shooting. Not McNair's multimillion-dollar home in the suburbs. But a modest apartment near downtown.

Josh Devine: And no one really seemed to have a sense that it was Steve McNair except for us.  It seemed like we were the only ones that had been tipped off to that.  But everyone knew that it was certainly serious.  I mean, you had police all over the place.  You had detectives all over the place.

While Devine tried to confirm the tip. Word was spreading among those closest to McNair. Eddie George is a friend and former teammate.

Lester Holt: I want you to take me back to July 4.

Eddie George: I get a phone call from a friend sayin', "Have you heard that-- that Steve was shot at a party last night?"  And I said-- and this is-- I'm like, "Come on, man.  You know, doesn't even sound right." 

Joseph Walker is the McNair family's minister and friend.

Joseph Warren Walker: The news was scattered. Really wasn't confirmed.  Text messages coming back and forth about what might have happened, maybe Steve had been shot.  But, you know, maybe some fight had taken place and maybe he'd been shot in the arm.  Nobody thought the worse.

But back at the apartment, medical examiner Feng Li knew instantly that the worst had happened.

Dr. Feng Lee: I respond to the scene.  And I saw two victims, one male and one female.  The male victim was obviously Mr. McNair, I recognized him right away.

McNair's wife Mechelle was at home with the couple's two sons, ages 5 and 10. Pastor Walker arrived just moments after police notified her of Steve's death.

Joseph Warren Walker: And I think yet there was a sense of denial.  I think when I walked in, I think that denial went away and it became very, very real.  All I knew to do was embrace Mechelle-- embrace the boys.  And-- a moment I'll never forget the rest of my life.

The family's grief didn't stay private for long. Eddie George and his wife drove to McNair's house.

Eddie George: It was just total silence.  Crying.  Hugging.  And just shock. 

Back at the apartment – the crime scene – Josh Devine saw firsthand that it was not just friends and family who mourned Steve McNair.

Josh Devine: People literally came out of the woodwork.  And it was an interesting cross section of Nashville. I think there was just this general sense that people were wholeheartedly stunned that a guy who had contributed so much to Nashville on and off the field had-- had died in-- in such a way.

Died in what way, exactly? The bodies had been found by a man named Wayne Neeley-- who had a key to the apartment.  He in turn called Robert "Big Daddy" Gaddy, who had known McNair since college. Gaddy rushed to the scene.

Gaddy: When I walked into the room, that’s a vision I will be haunted with for the rest of my life. That's not the way I ever want - or thought -  I would remember one of my best friends.

It was Gaddy who called 911.

In time, the actions of both men would raise questions.  But that first day, it was something else that caught everyone's attention.

Don Aaron: McNair was hit multiple times, including a gunshot wound to the head. His female friend, Ms. Kazemi, suffered one gunshot wound to the head.

Video   McNair 'wasn't playing by the rules' Brenda L. Thomas, a former personal assistant to NBA star Stephon Marbury and currently vice president of Time Sweet Time, a lifestyle management company, discusses the personal lives of professional athletes. Dateline NBC

Female friend?  Sahel Kazemi, the second victim, was just 20 years old. 

Don Aaron: From what I understand, she was a friend. She was a friend of McNair's. The vehicle, the 2007 Cadillac Escalade, is registered to both her and McNair.

The black Cadillac Escalade was parked at the scene of the double shooting.  But how was it that McNair and his young "friend" bought a luxury SUV together? 

And how did it happen that McNair had been in the vehicle-- apparently drunk-- when Kazemi was arrested for DUI just two days before the shootings? It began to seem that Steve McNair had a secret life.

Lester Holt: Were you angry at all with Steve when-- when you heard the circumstances of his death?  Disappointed?

Eddie George: I-- I-- not-- not angry.  Disappointed. 

How did this beloved and richly paid athlete, in just a few short years, go from the pinnacle of his sport to a violent death in a tiny apartment?  Was Steve McNair done in by his own bad decisions, or was there a deeper mystery here? How and why did the Titan fall?

MORE FROM PEOPLE

People Section Front

Subway carries 3-year-old boy’s dad away John Kerry: My daughter was not legally drunk Tina Brown: Palin Newsweek cover is not sexist   Pair arrested in videotaped assaults   Bicycling seniors hit the road   Closing arguments begin in Knox trial   Casey Anthony’s lawyers pointing fingers Happy Birthday Ann Curry!   New exhibit honors Tim Russert Chimp attack victim: I still ‘feel like me’ People Section Front   Add People headlines to your news reader: