MKRob Sports

Coming this season…the retirement of the #9 jersey of former Titans and Ravens quarterback  Steve McNair.

Here is why his jersey will be retired and will be entered into the Titans Ring of Honor:

• He’s one of only three quarterbacks to pass for 30,o00 yards and rush for 3,500 yards in a career (Fran Tarkenton and Steve Young), both Hall of Famers
• Only quarterback in Titans history to lead them to a Super Bowl
• Oilers/Titans second all-time leading passer (Warren Moon), Hall of Famer
• One of only two Oilers/Titans players to win the NFL MVP (Earl Campbell), Hall of Famer
• His 83.3 passer rating as a member of the Titans ranks first in team history
• He is the team’s all-time leader in completion percentage (59.5%)
• In 2002, he completed a string of 23 games in which he passed for at least one touchdown (10/14/01-11/24/02), breaking Warren Moon’s mark of 21 games.
• He was a pillar in the Nashville community

McNair was also a pioneer for the black quarterback today. Current Tennessee Titans quarterback Vince Young looked up to Steve McNair like so many other black quarterbacks in this era.

I still remember the day McNair got drafted, I had just come in from a tour of Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) and asked my mom to start taping it if I wasn’t home by the time the draft started.

She began taping it and when I ran in the door to see how much I had missed former NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue walked to the podium to announce the Oilers pick, Tagliabue said “With the 3rd pick in the 2005 NFL Draft the Houston Oilers select quarterback from Alcorn State Steve McNair.”

I have always admired and liked Steve McNair because he defied the odds of the doubt not only the black quarterback but the black college quarterback as well.

I always felt McNair was handed a raw deal from day 1 starting with all the major schools wanting him to play as a defensive back, to having to go to a smaller school to play quarterback, being snubbed out of the Heisman because he played Division I-AA football, coming up 6 inches short of being the second black quarterback to win a Super Bowl, being locked out of the Titans workout facility and having all the injuries catch up to him when he had two or three years left in him and now this.

McNair was the toughest quarterback I’d ever seen play and will always be.

R.I.P. Steve McNair