Netflix documentary revisits Steve McNair's death and career
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Steve McNair in 2003. Photo: Tom Pidgeon/Getty Images
Steve McNair still casts a long shadow over Music City.
The big picture: The one-time NFL MVP was one of the most beloved people in a city full of celebrities.
- His death on July 4, 2009, rocked Nashville and spurred seemingly endless conversation and speculation.
The latest: A new documentary out now on Netflix attempts to capture McNair's power on the field while also examining the circumstances of his death, which police quickly ruled a murder-suicide at the hands of McNair's girlfriend.
- The 58-minute program "Untold: The Murder of Air McNair" includes new interviews with former Tennessee Titans coach Jeff Fisher, the lead investigator from the Nashville police department and McNair's close friends.
State of play: As multiple reviews have noted, the documentary doesn't break new ground.
- It flashes between a recounting of the investigation — including increasingly emotional texts between McNair and his girlfriend in the days before his death — and the story of the Titans' legendary Super Bowl run during the 1999-2000 season.
The intrigue: Fisher remembered embracing McNair after the team lost the Super Bowl.
- "I told him I loved him and it would be OK. He said, 'I love you too, bro.'"
Between the lines: The episode briefly touches on conspiracy theories surrounding the case and how they have hurt McNair's loved ones.
- The doc also serves as a sort of time capsule of Nashville before it rose to "It City" status. And it reestablishes what made McNair such a force.
Zoom out: McNair embodied the toughness that has come to define the Titans since the team moved here in 1997.
- Longtime Nashvillians can still recount his best plays. No other Titans quarterback has come close to matching his captivating style or his stature in the community.
What they're saying: "His life shouldn't be reduced to his death. His life was so, so, so much more than that," co-producer Taylor Ward told the Tennessean.
- "One of our main objectives was to just lay all the information out as objectively as possible, and to show his full life, which includes his death. … There's equal screen time given to his life as well as the investigation surrounding his death."