Coach, teammates remember slain ex-NFL QB McNair

It took McNair's pastor and close friend to caution against judging the man for the circumstances of his death in Thursday night's memorial service. Bishop Joseph W. Walker III used the example of how Jesus told those without sin to cast the first stone when they wanted to kill an adultress.

"Drop your stone the next time you write about Steve McNair. Drop your stone the next time you text somebody. Drop your stone the next time you twitter. Drop your stone those of you in the barbershops, the beauty shops. Those of you walking the streets on the corner, drop your stone," Bishop Joseph W. Walker III said Thursday night at the memorial service for McNair.

"What I do know about this man was that he loved God though he was just like us — imperfect. But he knew God."

McNair, who was married, was shot to death at his condo early Saturday by his 20-year-old girlfriend, Sahel Kazemi, who then turned the gun on herself.

McNair's wife and family, friends, former teammates and coaches gathered along with thousands of fans to remember his accomplishments on and off the field in Nashville, capping two days' of celebrating the quarterback's life in the town he put on the NFL map by taking the Titans to the 2000 Super Bowl.

His body will be taken to Mississippi for a visitation in his hometown of Mt. Olive on Friday night. The funeral is Saturday at Reed Green Coliseum in Hattiesburg before a private burial back in Mt. Olive.

Mechelle McNair, who wore sunglasses, left just before McNair's casket was escorted out by his pallbearers. It was her first public appearance since her husband died, and the pool photographer and the cameraman inside the church were asked not to take pictures of her or other family members.

Walker called Mechelle McNair an amazing woman.

"You have inspired us all to endure hardship as a good soldier," Walker said.

Eddie George was among those who spoke during the service and was a pallbearer. He said afterward that helped make McNair's death more real.

"But I won't remember him in the casket. When I wake up, I'll remember No. 9. He's smiling right now laughing and really enjoying himself," George said.

McNair's closed casket was on display at Mount Zion Baptist Church, where he had attended services since moving to Nashville in 1997. It was flanked by a large photo of him posing with his 2003 NFL MVP award on the right and another of him holding a football on the left.

The program included a statement from the McNair family.

"In our loss, our hurt, and our pain we recognize our gains in you our friends and loved ones ... They have all been a source of strength and comfort at this time to our family," it read.

Titans owner Bud Adams, Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen and Nashville Mayor Karl Dean attended.

Among those speaking was Titans coach Jeff Fisher, who recalled a hit McNair took to his chest in September 2000 that had the NFL quarterback ready to quit the game. He was in so much pain that he spent a bye weekend with the team's former chaplain in Houston.

Then McNair, who struggled to breathe, watched his backup knocked out of the Titans' next game. Fisher said McNair looked at him, winked, tossed two passes and then drove them down the field to a game-winning touchdown. Fisher said he caught up to McNair walking off the field that day in Pittsburgh and started to talk when the quarterback interrupted and pointed to the sky.

"No more turf toe, no more sacks. No more shoulder problems, and no more interceptions, only touchdown passes. I'm going to miss you No. 9," Fisher said.

Derrick Lewis wore his Titans jersey to the stadium Thursday. He and his family were devastated when they learned of McNair's death. But Lewis said the details of the killing haven't changed his opinion of McNair.

"I will always remember him for the good things that he did for the community and the Tennessee Titans," Lewis said. "Nobody's perfect."

When her family visited Nashville for her 20th birthday less than two months ago, they said she was very happy and planning to move in with McNair. She thought he was in the final stages of a divorce from his wife of 12 years.

Only there was no divorce. And Kazemi's happiness soon changed into something much darker.

Nashville police say in the days leading up to the murder-suicide, Kazemi saw another young woman leaving the condominium where she and McNair would soon be found dead. She was worried about money. She was arrested for DUI. She bought a gun and told a co-worker she was thinking about "ending it."

About two weeks before police say Kazemi killed McNair and herself, she poured out her troubles in a chance meeting with Vera Mosley Buckner, a customer at the Dave and Buster's restaurant where Kazemi worked. The young waitress asked Buckner, a stranger, if she could talk to her.

"She sat down in the booth in front of me and the first thing she said was, 'Have you ever been in love?'" said Buckner, of Decatur, Ala.

Kazemi then opened her heart.

"She said, 'I date Steve McNair.' ... And she said, 'We've been dating for eight months and we've been on all kinds of vacations, but lately he acts like he doesn't want to spend time with me and I don't know what to do.'"

By sometime in the early hours of Fourth of July she had made up her mind.

Police say when McNair went to his downtown condo sometime between 1:30 and 2 a.m. on Saturday Kazemi's car was already there. He was sitting on the sofa, likely asleep, when she shot him twice in the head and twice in the chest. Then she sat down next to him, positioning herself so that she would fall into his lap, and shot herself.

Family and friends were shocked at the news, describing Kazemi as a sweet girl who did not have it in her to kill someone. They also said she would not have wanted to kill herself.

"She was enjoying her life," Nephew Farzin Abdi said. "She just had it made, you know, (with) this guy taking care of everything."

Abdi said Kazemi, who went by the name 'Jenni,' met McNair while working as a waitress at Dave and Buster's.

Restaurant manager Chris Truelove said of Kazemi, "She was pretty outgoing. A lot of the guests liked being around her, and she liked being around the guests."

She was also slender and curvy, with long black hair and an olive complexion. Her looks were compelling enough that Buckner's two daughters asked Kazemi to take a picture with them.

Kazemi told relatives that she refused McNair's advances at first. But soon they began dating, and before long he was at her apartment a couple of nights a week — so often that neighbors thought he might be living there.

Abdi says McNair took Kazemi on vacations to Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Key West, Fla., and his home state of Mississippi. Pictures of the two parasailing together have surfaced on the celebrity Web site TMZ.com.

All that would have been exciting for any young woman, but it must have seemed unbelievable for Kazemi, who dropped out of high school and moved to Nashville from Florida with a boyfriend at age 17, sometimes working two or three jobs to support herself.

Born in Iran, she and her family were persecuted for their Baha'i faith, Abdi said.

When Kazemi was 9 her mother was murdered, according to an account her ex-boyfriend gave The Tennessean newspaper in Nashville. After that, the family fled to Turkey before settling in Florida.

Despite the tragedy of her childhood, she was relentlessly upbeat.

Asked to describe her personality, Abdi said, "She was a very energetic girl. She never got tired. She wanted to have fun all the time."

She was proud of the fact that she did not have to ask her family for money, and from what she told Abdi, McNair also liked her independence.

"He liked her so much because they would go shopping and stuff and she would want to spend her own money," Abdi said. "The reason he said he loves her is because she's not trying to use him like other girls. She was different from other girls he had been with."

But police say Kazemi was spiraling out of control in the days just before killing McNair and taking her own life — although there was no suicide note.

Police said she had recently begun to suspect McNair was seeing another young woman. Kazemi had even followed that woman home, although she did not confront her.

And she was starting to get into financial trouble. Her roommate had recently moved out, doubling her rent. And she was making payments on a Kia as well as a Cadillac Escalade that she had said was a gift from McNair. The title was in both of their names.

She had been pulled over for DUI in that Escalade two days before Fourth of July. She had posted an ad on Craigslist to sell her furniture because, according to Abdi, she planned to move in with McNair.

Later on that Thursday, Kazemi purchased a 9 mm semiautomatic pistol for $100 from a man in the parking lot of the mall where she worked. The next day she told an associate, "My life is a ball of s--- and I should just end it."

That may be the last clue to what motivated her actions after she left work early and ended up at McNair's condo.

As police chief Ronal Serpas said, "It will never be known exactly what was on Kazemi's mind early Saturday morning."

-- Kristin M. Hall and Travis Loller