NEWS

WIRES

OTHER

Murder of Steve McNair: Tragedy Or Cautionary Tale?

By Robert Paul Reyes

"Former NFL quarterback Steve McNair has been shot and killed.

Nashville police spokesman Don Aaron confirmed that police were called to a residence and found McNair and a woman shot to death inside. Aaron said authorities don't yet know the circumstances of the shooting."
- The Associated Press

The Grim Reaper is culling his victims from the world of celebrities: Ed McMahon, Farrah Fawcett, Michael Jackson, Billy Mays, Fred Travalena, Karl Malden, and now Steve McNair.

Death may be the great equalizer, but we feel the death of some celebrities more than others. The cumulative effects of all these deaths in a short time span is devastating.

We need our Hollywood celebrities and our sports heroes to sustain us during hard economic times. A Steve McNair last-second winning touchdown or a Michael Jackson song helps us to forget that we are living in the worst of times.

Death has come to the door of Steve McNair, in what appears to be a murder-suicide. McNair had been shot several times while the woman (his girlfriend) was shot only once in the head and a gun lay close to her body.

McNair's murder is invariably described by reporters as "tragic", the death of a young man in the prime of his life is always sad, but in this case I wouldn't refer to it as tragic.

McNair, a married man, is murdered by his girlfriend, who then commits suicide. This is a cautionary tale: You Play, You Pay. McNair is a typical professional athlete who thinks the rules don't apply to him. His death saddens me, but it's not a damn tragedy.

A child run over by a bus is a tragedy. A man drowning while rescuing people from a flash flood is a tragedy. A rich spoiled married athlete murdered by his mistress doesn't quite qualify as a tragedy.

Robert Paul Reyes is a NewsBlaze writer on Politics, Pop Culture and Pointless Pontificating. Contact him by writing to NewsBlaze.