He made six starts in his first two seasons. The man dubbed “Air McNair” in college found himself grounded during his early years in the league. He is the last HBCU quarterback drafted in the first round. McNair continued to make history the next spring by becoming the third overall pick in the 1995 NFL draft by the Houston Oilers. But he was the only candidate with a rap video - created by Alcorn students and appropriately titled “Hand Him The Heisman.” McNair placed third behind Colorado’s Rashaan Salaam and Penn State’s Ki-Jana Carter. Only three athletes from HBCUs were Heisman finalists: Grambling’s Doug Williams in 1977, Mississippi Valley State’s Jerry Rice in 1984 and McNair, who received 111 first-place votes, in 1994. The Heisman Trophy has been awarded every year since 1935.

“He can do more to beat you with his abilities than anyone else I’ve ever seen. McNair’s 476 yards in the air and 110 on the ground in a 47-44 win for Alcorn over Troy left no doubt. He’s that good,” said Troy University head coach Steve Blakeney in November ’94. He’d be the best player on any team in Division I-A. … He’d be the best player on Colorado’s team or Nebraska’s team, too. “Steve McNair is the best football player I’ve ever seen. Dubbed “Air McNair,” his dominance caught the attention of an entire country well outside HBCU football. For good measure, he added 904 rushing yards and nine touchdowns.

His aerial assault tallied 5,377 yards and 47 touchdowns. ” He was, as Sports Illustrated dubbed him, “the best quarterback - black or white, big school or small - in college football.” The numbers didn’t lie.ĭuring McNair’s senior season, he racked up video game numbers. By the fall of 1994, he had surpassed his older brother (and current Alcorn head coach) Fred, who had been praised as the “greatest quarterback to come through the SWAC. He attended the HBCU after refusing to convert to defensive back (despite being more accomplished as a defender in high school) because Division I schools wanted him to. It was here McNair became a larger-than-life figure. That’s a story tracing back to the campus of Alcorn State University in Mississippi, the historically black college (HBCU) some 90 minutes southwest of the state capital of Jackson. Long before Drew Brees, there was Aaron Brooks.Steve McNair's story is so much more than its tabloid ending.For starters, Jeff Blake never lacked confidence.Randall Cunningham was unlike anything the NFL had ever seen.Joe Gilliam represented much more than Pittsburgh's black quarterback.His death only magnified his impact on the field. “You change, and you’re constantly searching for something.”īut McNair’s story is so much more than the tabloid ending.

“What people fail to realize is that when you make a transition away from the game - emotionally, physically, mentally, spiritually - you go through something,” his former Tennessee Titans teammate Eddie George told CNN. He struggled, according to those close to him, to fill a void without football. There was speculation as to what led to McNair’s life ending only a year after his retirement from the NFL. There were the uncomfortable details that emerged in the days, weeks and months after the tragedy - most notoriously that the young woman who shot him in his sleep and then took her own life was, in fact, his mistress. McNair’s July 2009 murder, on Independence Day no less, reverberated throughout the NFL community. Then again, it feels even weirder that McNair’s story already has an ending. It never feels right when The Steve McNair Story starts at the end.

Steve mcnair eddie george