I moved to Nashville the same year the Oilers left Houston for Tennessee. I can vividly remember the excitment of the unveiling of the new team name, the new jerseys, the new logo, the new stadium, and then later on, the success the Titans experienced. After the Titans won the AFC Championship game in 1999, my wife, my sister and I drove down to the stadium to welcome them home, and get them ready for the Super Bowl. It was very, very cold, and we waited for hours (I think we arrived at the stadium before they'd even boarded the plane to return from Indianopolis), but it didn't matter to us. We loved the Titans, and were very appreciative to be along for the ride.
Through the years I went to several Titans games, and even had the chance to be around several of the players from time to time. One of the Titans' team doctors also had sons who played for the high school I coached for at the time - David Lipscomb High School - so it was not unusual to see at least one Titan on the sideline every Friday night, including Steve McNair. I also had the chance to work McNair's youth football camps for several summers. (It was there that I first met a young man named Vince Young. He was a junior in high school and was there because McNair had taken him under his wing to help him.) It was also there that I got to see McNair work diligently with kids. McNair gave back when he didn't have to, and I respected that. In fact, one day after camp I even told him that, and he responded with a very genuine "thank you". Kids idolized him and even worshiped him, and therein lies the double edged sword. A double edged sword I have struggled to deal with myself.
I know for a fact that McNair did great things for others. I got to witness them firsthand. But, it also appears that not everything McNair did was good (as with all of us). So how do we remember McNair and others like him? Well, as usual, Tony Dungy says it very well.
For Lauren and me, Steve McNair’s death has been troubling. While we didn’t know him well, we did get a chance to spend a week with him and his family at the 2004 Pro Bowl, and the Colts competed against his Tennessee Titans for years in the AFC South Division. From all appearances, it seemed like a beautiful family who had everything going for it and a dad who was an icon in Tennessee.
What went wrong? Right now we can only guess, but perhaps time will answer some of the questions. There is going to be a tendency to say, “We should remember the good things Steve did and not focus on the negative.” And we should remember all the great things he did on the field for the Titans and in the Nashville community. We also shouldn’t focus on the information that has come out in the last few days in a purely judgmental way. But I think it would be a mistake to just ignore the more disturbing parts of the McNair story.
I think the best thing we could do is try to learn from it. In my mind, the lesson is that no matter how successful we are, no matter how many good things we do in life, we are all susceptible to temptation and bad choices. And one bad choice can ruin your life; just as it appears to have happened to Steve McNair, it can happen to me.
As a Christian, I believe in the bible, and it talks a lot about temptations and also about the consequences of sin and bad choices. Christians aren’t immune from those temptations or consequences. It appears that Steve McNair made a bad decision as a married man, just as Governor Sanford of South Carolina did, going down a disastrous path with another woman. Those relationships could have started out very innocently, and maybe even with good intentions in mind. However, at some point, both men had to make decisions on the direction those relationships would take, and both men apparently made the wrong choice.
Unfortunately, those decisions will have terrible consequences for them and their families. We have to keep in mind the impact our decisions can have, not only on ourselves, but on our loved ones as well. And it’s not just in the area of extra-marital affairs, but in all areas of integrity–in our personal and our business affairs as well. We have to constantly be on guard and pray about all of our decisions. We can’t fool ourselves into thinking that bad decisions won’t have bad consequences.
I feel so much sadness for Steve, his family and the other woman’s family. It just reminds me to be more diligent about my own walk and pray even more about my life and my decision-making.
(From: http://allprodad.com/dungy/?p=299)
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