WHO really killed NFL icon Steve “Air” McNair?
The brutal murder of the former Tennessee Titans quarterback in 2009 remains a subject of mystery and speculation.
6
6
6
Now McNair’s shocking death is being addressed in the fourth season of the Netflix sports documentary series “Untold.”
McNair, a former NFL MVP, was only 36 years old when he died of multiple gunshot wounds in his downtown Nashville apartment in the early hours of July 4, 2009.
At the time, Nashville police said the retired quarterback died of murder-suicide at the hands of his girlfriend Sahel “Jenni” Kazemi.
Kazemi was a 20-year-old waitress at a Dave & Buster’s restaurant who the married McNair had been dating for several months.
The 9mm pistol used to kill them both was found under Kazemi’s body. Later examinations revealed traces of gunpowder residue on her left hand.
Nashville police said the motive for the murder and suicide was Kazemi’s mounting debt and suspicions that McNair was having a relationship with another woman.
“We cannot enter the minds of people who commit these horribly irrational acts, but we believe there is evidence that she lost control,” said Ronal Serpas, Nashville’s police chief at the time.
According to police, Kazemi shot McNair in the left temple while he was sleeping on his couch.
Most read in American Football
Police said she shot herself in the temple after killing her lover.
For McNair’s family and friends, however, the verdict made little sense and they put forward a number of alternative theories.
According to a nine-part true crime podcast called “Steve McNair: Fall of a Titan,” Kazemi was arrested for drunk driving around 2:30 a.m. two days before the shooting.
McNair was with her at the time and he got her out of jail on bail.
The next morning, Kazemi texted McNair asking for $2,000 to pay her bills, including rent and car payments.
Kazemi had hoped that McNair would divorce his wife because of her, but according to police, she believed the NFL star had another woman.
On July 3, Kazemi reportedly told a colleague: “My life just sucks and I should end it!”
Earlier that day, Kazemi purchased the 9mm pistol found at the crime scene.
According to investigators, McNair was probably asleep when Kazemi shot him in the left side of his head from a distance of a few meters.
Then she shot him twice more in the chest and once in the head at close range.
My life just sucks and I should end it!
Jenni Kazemi
According to police, Kazemi then sat down next to McNair and shot herself in the head before collapsing to the ground.
But the police theory of the subsequent murder and suicide was questioned by several people close to McNair.
There are doubts as to whether the 20-year-old, who had never owned a gun before, was capable of pulling the trigger on McNair – or herself.
“I’ve spoken to family and friends of Jenni who knew her and spoke to her in the last few weeks of her life, and they told me she wasn’t upset about these things,” Tim Rohan, spokesperson for the SI podcast, told People.
“They told me she wasn’t upset about Steve cheating, she wasn’t upset about the drunk driving, and she wasn’t short of money.
6
6
6
“They sort of refute the idea that she was suicidal and lost control.”
“These are people who were close to Jenni, who spoke to her regularly, who spoke to her on the last day of her life, who just don’t believe she did it.”
According to Netflix, the upcoming McNair film will delve deeply into the “unanswered questions surrounding his 2009 murder.”
Additionally, there will be a focus on McNair’s illustrious career, including the Titans’ run to Super Bowl XXXIV in 2000.
