Last night, Dateline NBC aired their much anticipated story of Steve McNair titled The Mysterious Death of a Titan. I’m not sure what was so “mysterious” about his death, but anyway. The story documented his rise to fame from Mt. Olive Mississippi to leading the Tennessee Titans to the 2000 Superbowl and then ultimately his untimely death at the hands of his mistress of 6 months Sahel(Jenny) Kazemi. This story has received lots of publicity in the past months but I still find the story fascinating and almost shocking to some degree. I say shocked because, it appears that this man led an entirely separate life from his wife and children presumably in the public eye.
Dateline interviewed the former roommate/best friend of Kazemi who gave a first hand account of the relationship between the two and basically described the relationship as normal and loving. Eddie George,friend and former teammate of Steve McNair talked about Steve the athlete , philanthropist and friend. The McNair family minister spoke of Steve’s plight as a person in the public eye struggling with his family obligations and his personal vices (i.e. his affairs with women). Each of these people knew a different side of Steve but no on knew his callous actions would lead to a traumatic ending on July 4th, 2009.
In addition to friends and family, Dateline also interviewed Brenda L. Thomas, former personal assistant to NBA player Stephon Marbury and author of three best sellers including Every Woman’s Got a Secret. Ms. Thomas offered insight into these “types” of relationships based on her experience in the business. She suggested that the downfall of the relationship was due to neither party playing by the rules. The rules being: Steve didn’t set the appropriate boundaries and Jenny didn’t understand that Steve would never leave his wife for her. This was very interesting to me.
Are there really rules for cheating men and their mistresses? Is the woman on the side supposed to assume that she will never get the man? Should the man make sure the rules are set before getting involved in an extramarital affair? I’m not sure, but to me, it would be easier to stay at home (a lot safer at least). Did Kazemi’s age play a part in her dream of a fairy tale ending? I guess in a way, Ms. Thomas was correct because if McNair and Kazemi observed these “rules” from the beginning, they both would be alive today, maybe.
