Missing McNair

So long, so wrong, wasting my time
Trying to find the peace of mind…
-Proxemics

Steve McNair is gone. The center-piece of the Titans, the quarterback, the leader. With him goes the last memorable player from the Titans’ Super Bowl run. It is truly then end of an era. And I’m quickly realizing, as I attempt to deal with the loss of my favorite Titan, what that really means. It means that a new era is upon us (well, Titans fans anyways), what many have titled the “Vince Young Era” (or VYE). And, quite frankly, I’m not sure I’m ready for it…

Vince Young dominated the Rose Bowl (actually, the last two Rose Bowls) to a level rarely seen in high-level athletics. But he did it as an athlete, not as a football player. I don’t want to undermine the improvements that Vince made from his Freshman year to the impressive capstone game of his Junior season. He went from a raw, completely inaccurate thrower who couldn’t pass Chance Mock on the depth chart, to a classic double-threat quarterback. He developed enough as a passer to hit open receivers on intermediate and short routes, especially while using his scrambling ability to buy extra time.

But in the NFL, bigger, faster Defensive linemen will have him flat on his back before he can get those passes off. He’s only played out of the shot-gun. His footwork is iffy, to say the least. Don’t let me even get started on his throwing mechanics (let’s just put it this way, he’s a rotator cuff injury waiting to happen, and J-E-T-S fans know how unbearable that whole process can be). The fact of the matter is this: Vince Young has the tools, but so do Drew Henson, Kyle Boller, Patrick Ramsay, and David Carr. There are no guarantees. Everyone is trying to get the next Peyton Manning or the next Mike Vick (it’s true, I don’t know why, but it’s true), but as often as not you end up with the next Sean Salisbury. Which is why I have a feeling I’ll be wishing we were still in the BV (before Vince) era for the next few years, as much as the VYE holds a promising future.

Sing a new song, hold me near tonight
tell me that everything’s alright
-Proxemics

But as I sit here, already missing McNair, there is one thing that brings me some solace. The fact of the matter is that he hasn’t been the same quarterback since his “McMVP” year. His ability to play through injuries on his way to a co-MVP winning year won the respect of fans everywhere, and an irreplaceable spot in the heart of every die-hard Titans fan.

But the injuries took their toll. And his impressive ability to play through the pain and the injuries was surpassed only by his incomprehensible ability to develop new pains and injuries (who get hurt falling on a football? I’m not saying he was faking any of it, but it got to the point that you where you started to wonder if he was two people: the body of the softest player in football ever, combined with the heart of the toughest man on earth). And as the last two seasons unfolded McNair had finally had enough. He decided to start letting his injuries heal, even if it meant missing a game or two; and no one could blame him. But as he missed more games and his lost aura of invincibility, he seemed to lose some of his killer-instinct. The McNair of 2003 was gone, and in his place we were left with a quarterback who could no longer run over linebackers, and who now was as likely to throw the game-deciding interception as the game-winning touchdown.

I don’t want to bash McNair as he walks out the door, because he’ll always be a Titan to me. Furthermore, as a fan, I mostly blame the Titans organization for the handling of this situation (although it was a very tough situation). But as I’ve become accustomed to watching all of the Titans best players leave as free agents in recent years (George, Kearse, Mason, Rolle, and now McNair, with three of them going to the hated Baltimore Ravens), I’ve learned to move on. Call it a coping mechanism, a naive optimism, call it whatever you want.

And part of what’s helping me to move on is this: the Titans were never going to win a Super Bowl with McNair, and neither will the Ravens. Not that McNair. Not the McNair who looks, talks and leads like McNair but can no longer make the accurate throws or devastating runs that made him so special. And so I know that, while the Ravens are getting a great player and a great quarterback, they aren’t getting man who could carry a team, who was the heart and soul of an organization.

That man is gone, only to be seen again on ESPN Classic re-runs of the Titans 2003 season and the 2000 Super Bowl. He’s gone, and I already miss him. I’ll miss seeing him in a Titans jersey every Sunday. But he’s gone, and I’ve already been missing him, for quite some time now…