Former pro football player murdered by possible girlfriend

Former NFL star Steve McNair was shot dead last week by a 20-year-old possible girlfriend distraught about mounting financial problems and her belief that he was seeing someone else, Nashville police said Wednesday.

Sahel Kazemi “was spinning out of control” when she shot McNair four times as he dozed on a sofa in his condo early Saturday, then turned the gun on herself, police Chief Ronal Serpas said.

Her friends told police that she was having trouble making payments on two cars, her rent was doubling and she suspected the married McNair was having a second affair with another woman.

She told a friend on Friday that “my life is a ball of s—- and I should end it,” Serpas said.

Police earlier had ruled McNair’s death a homicide, but waited for further tests and the results of investigations about Kazemi’s personal problems before concluding that she pulled the trigger of a 9mm semiautomatic pistol in a condominium McNair rented with a male friend.

McNair, 36, a quarterback for the Tennessee Titans most of his career, met Kazemi six months ago at a sports cafe where she was a waitress and his family often ate. She told family and friends that she was happy and eager to build a life with him, but something went wrong.

“We do know that she was clearly sending a message during the last five to seven days of her life that things were going bad quickly,” Serpas said, though there was no indication she told anyone she planned to harm McNair.

Serpas said detectives learned that Kazemi recently found out about another young woman she thought McNair was romantically involved with and had even followed that woman home, though she did not confront her.

All of this was taking place without the knowledge of McNair’s wife, Mechelle, the mother of two of his sons, and possibly without even McNair’s.

It could easily be that Kazemi dreamed up the whole story, except for the fact that McNair’s name is also on the title of her Cadillac Escalade. She even told a friend that his divorce was only two weeks from being final. In reality, no McNair divorce papers have ever even been even filed. 

Kazemi was born and lived in Iran until she was nine years old, when her mother was killed in that country. She then came to live with relatives in the U.S.

People who grow up witnessing violence frequently become violent themselves.