But this moment in front of the school is a good one. She never played. He took care of us. But he could be there for McNair's boys. When he headed back east after winter break, Trent refused to go to the airport because he didn't want to cry. Nine years later, it's still hard for him to talk about McNair. She made faces at him to try to get him to stop. Mechelle tied the knot with Steve on 21 June 1997 in front of …
"He was the first person to come," Tyler says. (McNair also has two older sons from previous relationships.) Steve McNair played for the Titans/Oilers from 1995-2005 and was the face of the franchise. To Mechelle, he was sort of a gentle giant, romantic enough to hide an engagement ring in a piece of strawberry cake, country enough to skin a deer and cook it up for his teammates.Before she met McNair, Mechelle never thought she would get married.
It's the most I've felt like a regular person, like nothing has happened. She had one job: to raise their sons.Former Titans Chris Johnson and Vince Young took the boys to the locker room, just as their dad had done. But if I'm playing basketball, I kind of look up there and tell her to sshhhhh.
God and her friends and family who cooked and took the kids swimming and handled everything. He doesn't believe anyone can play quarterback as well as his father did, so why even try?As they enter new stages of their lives, they wonder what their father would think. He said he couldn't live without his daddy and wanted to kill himself.
He was catching up with friends and hanging out at Waffle House at 2 in the morning. "Steve McNair was born on Valentine's Day, and he died on the Fourth of July. A few months after his death, the restaurant was sold.He did not have a will, creating a painful mess that dragged on for years. "Freshman year, she had a human anatomy class with McNair, and he spent most of it staring at her. He didn't want to watch TV, didn't want to eat anything. "Trent will put his hands on his hips and walk to the bench, and it reminds Piller of Steve heading to the huddle. A "True Crimes with Aphrodite Jones" episode filmed in 2013 even pointed suspicion at her. It had been a long time since they'd been there. She would wonder, later, about signs.Her mother, Melzena Cartwright, saw the news on TV. Ex-Tennessee tight end Bo Scaife filled Tyler's closet with sneakers.Then there was Mike Mu, a longtime family friend who used to run McNair's foundation. But after Steve's death, the most intimate details of her life were fodder for public consumption. It was just like 2009. "I think it was important for [Lucille] because you see a part of your son you lost," Mechelle says. Times when McNair would take the boys out on his motorcycle and they didn't even need to talk. They hug, and Tyler wants to tell her something before she goes back home to Tennessee. McNair… But now one of them is leaving, and Mechelle is just trying not to lose it. At first, Mechelle thought he should stick it out. (She was never a suspect). Here was an NFL quarterback one season into retirement, a former co-MVP and a Super Bowl participant, murdered.Twitter wasn't a factor yet, but there were plenty of media outlets to feed off of the stunning story of a Tennessee football hero killed by 20-year-old Sahel Kazemi, a woman with whom he'd been having an affair.The Metropolitan Nashville Police Department ruled it a murder-suicide, concluding that Kazemi shot McNair four times -- twice in the head -- in the early morning hours of July 4, most likely while he was sleeping on the couch of his rented condo. Nothing's going to change how I feel about my husband. "I know what he's thinking. Years ago, after Cartwright lost her own husband, Steve had told her to pack her bags and come live with them. The transition from football player to businessman was not smooth. She loves taking care of people. Sometimes, when she's rushing to a game or going to Bible study, it hits her -- the absence of tears and drama, the return to normal. Mechelle appreciates the little things, such as the neighbor who used to replace the boys' basketball net whenever it looked worn, or the random texts Piller sends to the boys to ask how it's going.Sports was always one of the tougher areas for Mechelle to navigate. He kissed Mechelle and told her he loved her, too.Nearly 5,000 people mourned McNair at Reed Green Coliseum on the campus of Southern Miss. Nine years after Mechelle McNair's world caved in, her oldest son, Tyler, is going to NYU on an academic scholarship. Mechelle found strength and independence she never thought she had.In 2013, she sold their 13,000-square-foot house and moved to a smaller home. "She thinks about the next chapter in her life. And I don't feel like that's how God wants us to be.