Steve McNair: A Warrior with a Capital “W” Goes Out to a “Standing O”
April 17, 2008
Steve McNair’s teammates gave him a “Standing O.” That’s with a capital “S” and a capital “O” because, in professional football, when your teammates take the time to stand and applaud you, there is no better accolade; not all the MVP’s, not the All-Pro selections, not even the Pro bowl selections.
A Standing O from the men who know you best means that they would do anything for you —- anything. It means that your retiring means something irreplaceable will be forever missing from the Baltimore Ravens locker room.
Forever.
The team will get over Brian Billick not being there. It already has. It will get over any other player or coach in that locker room, other than Ray Lewis - perhaps.
Perhaps because Lewis is as loud as McNair was quiet. Lewis is as demonstrative as McNair was unobtrusive. Lewis will tell you if another player is not performing to standards. McNair would blame himself for the entire team’s problems before the thought of blaming someone else would cross his mind.
Ray Lewis shut it down as the season waned when he was nicked up. Lewis laughed and joked on the sidelines while his team lost.
Steve McNair’s wife is a nurse and she couldn’t shut him down. McNair refused to shut it down, unless he couldn’t move and was on crutches. If he was nicked, he played, if the team was 3-12 and done or 12-3 with a playoff spot sewn up.
For 13 years this man stood in the pocket and got his butt kicked just to wait that extra millisecond for his receiver to come out of his final break. For 13 years this man took off running and when it came time to slide, 90% of the time he hit somebody; like a running back, not a quarterback. And when it came time to get up, most times it was the defender who was woozy.
He led a run-first team without a number one receiver to within one yard of a Super bowl win against a team so talented they were putting up video game numbers. The quarterback was throwing for 4,000 yards in 12 games. It seemed like every receiver on the team caught 90 balls. The running back was a Hall-of-Famer and still had plenty of years left on his wheels; a team so good they were called, the “Greatest Show on Turf.”
And the only player who put the fear of god in that great team’s heart was Steve McNair. If only his receiver had realized a linebacker was on him, he would have run that pattern two yards deeper and we’d be talking about the biggest upset in Super Bowl history. But he didn’t. However, you’d never know it from listening to Steve McNair. He never said one bad word about Kevin Dyson; though I’m sure it killed him inside to watch Dyson choke off his pass route because of the tension caused by that being the game’s final play.
Instead, Steve McNair said he could have done more so that the game didn’t come down to that moment; that he could have played better in the first half so his team was not forced to play catch up from the edge of getting blown out.
Remember the play where McNair was sacked but because of his pure “want to” he somehow got away and turned a minus 15 yard play into a game-changer - just to get his team in position for Dyson to choke off that final pass route?
Remember?
Steve McNair played for the Tennessee Oilers and didn’t complain. He watched Eddie George get so scared to run against the Titans’ nemesis, the Baltimore Ravens that he nearly pissed himself - but he didn’t complain.
Hell, Steve McNair didn’t complain when his own team, the Titans, locked him out of their training facilities! All he did was to say he was confused and couldn’t understand; that all he wanted to do is to rehab from yet another injury incurred because he never had great protection or a number one receiver other than his tight end and by that time didn’t even have a reliable rushing attack.
Some people, like me wanted McNair to speak out on the Titans management. I wanted McNair to tell the truth about the situation, hold his head up, and move on.
But McNair did it his way - the way of the Quiet Warrior. He remained quiet, but he stood firm. The Titans were so shamed by McNair’s ability to rise above the fray and their own seamy behavior, they traded him to their nemesis - in division, right next door; they gave Steve McNair one last chance to win.
And he gave Baltimore all he had left. He just found out that all he had wasn’t much. So, instead of trying for glory one last time , trying to hang on until the Ravens changed the lock on his locker like most players would, Steve McNair listened to his body - and perhaps, finally, his wife. And Steve McNair retired on his own terms.
And for all that, all those years, even the ones against then Ravens, his teammates gave Steve McNair a Standing O.
In the end, Steve McNair was what Kellen Winslow, Jr. aspires to be, but already told us he is: a warrior. And young Winslow is showing the term “warrior” might someday befit him.
Steve McNair threw for over 30,000 yards and ran for over 3,600. He might not be deemed worthy for induction into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. But he is already in the NFL Player’s Hall of Warriors. That’s Warrior with a capital “W.”
And that’s with a Standing O.
(Click here for the video of McNair’s retirement announcement.)
Comments
13 Responses to “Steve McNair: A Warrior with a Capital “W” Goes Out to a “Standing O””
Got something to say?
dwil,
Great piece. It was an honor to watch McNair play with and against the Ravens. Wasn’t always happy with his play last season, but was a tru baller who left a piece of himself on every field he played.
And if Joe Namath, who threw more interceptions than touchdowns in his career, can get in the HOF,surely there’s a place for a true warrior such as Steve McNair.
I put my accolades on the first post about his retirment. As we use to yell in my household after another improbable escape followed by a strike through the air: “THAT’S MY QUARTERBACK!!”
However, I have to take you to task about the unkind words referring to Eddie George. Watching the guy for his entire career, the man was afraid of no one, including the Ravens. The year the Ravens won the SB, George had just under a hundred yards against them. I don’t believe any RB accomplished that during the entire playoffs. The Raven’s used to say the Titans were the toughest team the played against during those years. Also, in ‘03, I recall Eddie George dislocating his shoulder and coming back in the first half, punking Ray Ray and getting what turned out to be a crucial one yard gain for Anderson to ice the game. Besides that for a couple of years he never missed a start. Yeah, I obviously loved that particular squad from 95 to 04
Well said. This guy was a true warrior and it is a tragedy that he was not able to announce his retirement with the Titans logo behind him.
Thanks all…
awb-
I loved EG, but the Ravens did get in his head… he battled, but they got to him… I like the Titans but my memories of EG was him huffin’ and puffin’ and steamin’ on the sidelines as much as all the things you mentioned.
The real problem was, the offense was so unimaginative that er’body knew what was coming….
Air McNair retires…..a moment of silence to reflect…you were a SWAC warrior, but us MEAC fans loved you just as hard and still claimed you as our own when you got drafted. A true soldier.
Miranda-
Glad you made it here… thank you.
Props to McNair on a wonderful career but his career is still the microcosm for Black QB’s in the NFL with too little talent surrounding them and poor coaching guiding them. Despite all that, McNair was a MAN on that field and for that I applaud him as well.
Nuff Repesct to ‘Air’ McNair……and I STILL (and always will) think he should’ve won the Heisman in ‘95. I also think he should’ve been the sole MVP in 2003 (sorry Peyton). The guy was indeed a warrior and is perhaps the toughest player i’ve ever seen. He put it all on the field, every game and every year. I just hope that the injuries and abuse he suffered during those 13 seasons doesn’t ‘cripple’ him.
I agree w/ HD….who knows how much more successful his career would’ve been if he had the ‘big-time’ receivers he most certainly needed.
Miranda,
We SIAC fans (Fort Valley State Univ.) loved him and claimed him as well.
I will say that McNair suffered the most from the Fisher’s coaching philosophy. I love Fisher,he’s a great coach and teacher, but everyone knows all he really wants to do is play D and pound the ball and in a way McNair was perfect for that. I was listening to Frank Wycheck talk this morning and I agree with him in that McNair was kind of taken for granted. The Titan’s were forever running on first and second down and McNair was just expected to pick of the first by any means necessary it seemed. It was only when Heimerdinger came on as offensive coordinator from Denver and recognized Steve as similar to John Elway that they started airing it out a bit and consequently, McNair won the MVP
As an aside and ode to his toughness, McNair was being interviewed by Dan Patrick this morning and described getting his sternum cracked in the Titans Superbowl year. He said he couldn’t sleep, or really move without pain and that it took about 3 years to fully heal and there was no surgery for it. Frank Wycheck also talked about a late season game in ‘02 when Steve could barely get off the bus against the Giants but ended up leading the Titans from behind by scoring a late TD and 2 point conversion (that he ran in). We called him “Country Strong” in Nashville. I haven’t read any Nashville coverage of his retirment, but if the Ravens, a hated rival of Titan fans everywhere, gave him a standing O I know he is getting love from them.
I was always a fan of McNair.
He carried himself like a man. A quiet, humble man. He never seemed to let other folks rattle him, even when they were jumping on his case about that DWI and gun. He said his peace, and left it at that.
I respected that about him.
[…] Forever. READ MORE […]
Words cannot describe the pain that i feel after his retirement. I was praying, hoping and pleading to higher powers for him to get a SB.
My lasting impression would always be the one in 2003 where they played the Patriots. When Bennett dropped the ball on the 4th down that ended their journey… the next shot I see on the screen is McNair going over to console him . I think that captures who he is for me.
It will take ma while to get back to watching football (and my wife and kids would be better off for that though :))