I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate Steve McNair on a terrific 13 year NFL career with the Houston Oilers / Tennessee Titans and Baltimore Ravens. Steve McNair was one of those guys that you respected even though he wasn’t on your team. He always gave 110% and played through a slew of injuries. He was a great ambassador for the Mississippi area when his home state was ravaged by Hurricane Katrina. He is someone the NFL will miss not only for his on the field play, but the great contributions that he had off the field.
Steve McNair came into the NFL as a Division I-AA Walter Payton Award winner. His nickname in college was Air-McNair, a name he earned for the wide open offense he ran at Alcorn State. In his senior season he threw for 4,863 yards and rushed for 936 yards. He also threw for 44 touchdowns. That prompted the Houston Oilers to select him 3rd in the 1995 NFL Draft.
After only playing in 4 games his rookie season and 9 games his second season learning behind Chris Chandler he was put into the starting lineup in 1997. From 1997 to 2003, McNair missed only nine of the possible 112 regular-season starts. Five of those misses were due to back surgery. Steve McNair developed a reputation of being able to play through injuries that most players would not dare try. He and Brett Favre were widely considered the two toughest quarterbacks in the NFL.
The Titans finished 8-8 in both 1997 and 1998. In 1999 the pieces finally started to come together for the Titans. Steve McNair was coming into his own as a NFL quarterback. Eddie George dominated the running game. Frank Wycheck was a Pro Bowl tight end. Derrick Mason was a dangerous return man that would come into his own the following year. The defense received the piece it was missing by drafting a Florida defensive end named Jevon “The Freak” Kearse. The Titans would finish 1999 13-3, but second in the division to the 14-2 Jacksonville Jaguars.
Thankfully for the Titans, the Jags two losses were to the Titans. After beating the Bills in the Music City Miracle and the Colts in a Divisional Round contest, the Titans would beat the Jaguars for the 3rd time that season and advance to the Super Bowl. They would lose to the St Louis Rams 23-16. In the closing seconds of the game McNair hit Andre Dyson who sprinted for the endzone. He was stopped 1-yard shy of the endzone and from potentially sending the game to overtime.
The Titans would build off that win in 2000 and go 13-3 with the best record in football. They were the favorite to win the Super Bowl, but were upset in the Divisional Round by the eventual champion Baltimore Ravens. After finishing 7-9 in 2001 they would bounce back to go 11-5 in 2002 and advance to the AFC Championship Game, where they would lose to the Oakland Raiders. In 2003 they finished 12-4 and Steve McNair shared his first and only MVP award with Peyton Manning. The Titans would win their first round game against Baltimore, but fell to eventual champion New England.
By 2004 the salary cap had started to catch up with the Titans. Forced to cut many of their high priced veteran starters the Titans crashed to 5-11 in 2004 and 4-12 in 2005. McNair started only 8 games in 2004 and 14 in 2005. By then the Titans wanted to move on and draft Vince Young. What followed was a messy parting of the ways, in which McNair was banned from the team facilities and had to sue the Titans. Eventually McNair won his lawsuit and the Titans and Ravens worked out a trade to send McNair to Baltimore.
In 2006 McNair led the Ravens to a 13-3 record and was again back in the playoffs. However, after earning a first round bye the Ravens would fall to the eventual champion Indianapolis Colts in the Divisional Round 15-6. Of McNair’s 5 playoff losses, 4 were to the eventual Super Bowl Champion and the other was to the 2002 Oakland Raiders, who were the runner up that season.
In 2007 McNair was not right the entire season. Unable to stay healthy he only appeared in 6 games. That was the primary factor that led to the announcement of his retirement. He finished his NFL Career 31,304 yards passing, 174 touchdowns to 119 interceptions and a career QB rating of 82.8. He also carried for 3,590 yards and 37 touchdowns, which are top 5 career numbers for a quarterback.
Now that Steve McNair has retired the question is going to come up as to whether or not he had a Hall of Fame career. While I think he was a very good quarterback that enjoyed a fine NFL career and should have absolutely no regrets, I don’t think he played at a high enough level to warrant induction into Canton. The reasons are as follows:
1) Lack of big regular season numbers – Supporters will look at his 20th career ranking in completions, 23rd in attempts, 28th in passing yards, 43rd in career touchdowns, and his 27th career quarterback rating and conclude that he was a Hall of Famer. You have to go deeper than that. First, he played his entire career in the pass friendly era of the late 1990s and 2000s. His numbers are comparable to Hall of Famers that played the majority or their entire career in the Dead Ball Era. Second, he finished in the top 10 in completions, attempts, and passing yards only twice. He was in the top 10 in passing touchdowns only 3 times.
People will point to his rushing numbers. That is one of the difficulties in evaluating quarterbacks. Some people value those rushing numbers more than others. My belief is that a quarterback’s primary job is to pass the ball and those are the numbers a quarterback should ultimately be judged upon. Until a rushing quarterback carries a team to multiple rings and redefines the quarterback position I am sticking to that theory. While the Titans won a lot of games in his tenure, he never accumulated the passing numbers that I believe are necessary for Hall of Fame induction.
2) Lack of Postseason Success in relation to the Regular Season Numbers – McNair went 5-5 in the postseason and did get his team to the Super Bowl once. While he did not play great in that game he did play well enough to have his team in that game until the last play. People will compare his career numbers to Troy Aikman and see that McNair outperformed him over the course of his career. The problem is that Aikman led the Cowboys to 3 Super Bowl rings in a 4 year period. Had Aikman appeared in one Super Bowl and lost, he wouldn’t be in the Hall of Fame either. In my opinion, Steve McNair didn’t experience enough success in the postseason to make up for his low regular season numbers to make the Hall of Fame.
3) He didn’t have a sustained period as the best quarterback in the game – Early in his career he didn’t measure up to Troy Aikman, John Elway, Brett Favre, Dan Marino, or Steve Young. He didn’t measure up to Tom Brady, Brett Favre, or Peyton Manning later in his career. Kurt Warner and Rich Gannon both had points where they were better quarterbacks. Both also won MVP awards. Carson Palmer and Donovan McNabb were better at points in their careers. The result is that while he did win the MVP in 2003, that 4 year stretch from 2000 to 2003 is the only time he was considered an upper echelon quarterback. He was a 3 time Pro Bowler in 2000, 2003, and 2005; meaning he never put together consecutive Pro Bowls. He was never a NFL All-Pro. He never had a season that left fans in awe like Marino in 1984, Farve in 1996, Warner in 1999, Culpepper in 2004, Manning in 2004, and Brady in 2007.
I believe the Hall of Fame is more about how long you were an elite quarterback than what kind of career numbers you were able to accumulate. I don’t think that Vinny Testaverde is worthy of Canton induction and he ranks in the top 6 in passing yards, touchdowns, attempts, and completions. I would definitely put McNair ahead of Vinny, because of the MVP award, rushing production, and the fact that McNair led his team to a Super Bowl appearance. I just wouldn’t put him in the Hall of Fame.
Again, congratulations to Steve McNair for a wonderful career. While I don’t believe it was a Hall of Fame career, that in no way should diminish his career accomplishments. He was an extremely tough player and played through injuries that a lot of guys would not have been able to. He gave the fans a lot of great moments over the years and always conducted himself with the utmost class. He was a great ambassador to the NFL both on and off the field. Most importantly, he was respected through out the NFL. If the league had more Steve McNairs it would be a better league for it.
Street Cred McNair may well be sitting on the cusp of being a Hall of Famer . But it'll be left to the writers for that to be decided. All I know is that he's certainly respected by his peers and that if anything may well count for more than what a writer'll do or have to say .
In his prime he was a phenomenal player it's somewhat sad that he could never earn that elusive Superbowl ring.
See my post titled A Rite Of Passage And Hopefully A Journey Of Redemption ! . I'll look forward to reading your comments.
Very good read. I agree that while he had a very fine career, it was not HOF worthy.
Also thank you for saying that in the Superbowl with the Rams, the Titans were stopped one foot away from sending the game into overtime. Everytime I hear a Titan fan talk about that game, they always say they were one foot away from winning the game.
Tophatal - Thanks for the post. I will try to check that out. Obviously, the writers will have the final say, but if Chris Carter couldn't get in on the first ballot, I don't see a lot of hope for McNair to get in anytime soon.
He is a player that would need to get in right away, because as the years go by the career numbers are going to get higher for quarterbacks, further hurting his cause.
Magic53 - Thanks for the post. Cold Hard Football Facts shared your annoynance on that. I read an article a ways back that addressed that very misconception.
Street Cred
So much of this all objective rather than it being subjective when it comes to the Hall of Fame. Personally I'd like to see the players or formers that've been elected into the HOF have a say in the adjudication and nomination of the players. Rather than it being left to a few select bunch of football writers . Right of the bat it smacks of favoritism and not much else.
I don't particuarly like the current system, but I'm not sure if there is a better way. I'd rather have the writers do it, because they follow the NFL for a living. The former players or Hall of Famers don't have the time to watch games while they are playing and don't have to follow games after they retire. At least the current voters are well informed, although after seeing Chris Carter not get in I'm not convinced of that.
It's similar to the problems in the AP Poll and the College Poll where Coaches have their graduate assistant coaches do the rankings.
No system is perfect, because everyone has different opinions and standards. It is a shame that people everyone know should be in don't get in right away, but I don't think there is anyway to get rid of that as long as the humans are in the equation.
Street Cred
What I'd like to see is there being a panel of current and former players conducting the adjudication in conjunction perhaps with the writers.
That if anything I think'd be fair.
With regard to the Player of The Year as do with soccer in the UK it's the players who decide on that particular award. The current and former players I believe are more than knowledgeable enough to make a subjective decision . It's the idiots that are out of touch with the game that tend to make the idiotic comments .
Either they're getting old before their time or it's onset of Alzheimer's ?
tophatal - That would probably be a good way to do it. Add a couple former players to the panel to even things out.
While I get that with players like Steve McNair there are going to be differences of opinion on whether he his Hall worthy, I just don't get how Chris Carter doesn't get in. He has to be one of the top 10 receivers in the history of the NFL and was the 2nd best receiver in the 90s behind Jerry Rice.
Something needs to be done when a guy of that caliber doesn't get in and that is coming from a Packer fan that had no hesitation rooting for him to do badly.
Street Cred
It's the incredulity of the writers and how they go about the adjudicating. Their so called lofty goals in the end are just as annoying as the political debates and the nominational process that takes place in choosing the Presidential candidates . So much hot air is being blown that it makes you just want to kick the sh*it out of your tv set.
He definitely deserves to go for effort. Look at some of the people who made it. I will respect Steve either way. He was my hero as a hall of famer or not.
Titansfan24 - Sorry I didn't respond sooner. Thanks for the post. To me there are thousands of guys that give a lot of effort. The Hall of Fame is about the best of the best. While he was a good quarterback and there were a lot of things to like about him, I don't think he was the best of the best for long enough to get into the Hall.
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