HATTIESBURG, Miss. — Tennessee Titans quarterback Vince Young didn’t expect to speak Saturday during his mentor’s funeral. He wound up summing up the emotional day with just a few words.
“Steve was like a hero to me, and heroes are not supposed to die,” Young said before stopping to rub his eyes as he talked about the man he knew from football camps as a teenager and called “Pops” — Steve McNair, his predecessor with the Titans.
McNair was shot and killed on the Fourth of July by his girlfriend, 20-year-old Sahel Kazemi, who then shot herself in the head.
Nearly 5,000 people turned out to say goodbye to the 36-year-old during one of the biggest funerals in the recent history of Mississippi, McNair’s home state.
Fans and old friends filed into the Reed Green Coliseum on the campus of the University of Southern Mississippi, and McNair’s family rented buses to haul in people from his hometown of Mount Olive. Not far away sat men who competed against McNair or coached him on the field.
The high school football team that McNair’s son plays on wore its jerseys in honor of the man they often saw smiling from the sidelines.
“Mississippi has lost a tremendous legend,” said Cardell Jones, McNair’s college coach at Alcorn State.
The hearse carrying McNair’s silvery-gray casket was escorted 30 miles down Highway 49 by nine police officers on motorcycles, and several vehicles carried family members. After the two- hour service, the procession headed back for a private burial at Griffith Cemetery, about 20 miles from Mount Olive.
Police escorted McNair’s wife, Mechelle, and his mother, Lucille, into the stadium beforehand. Near the end, a handful of people surrounded his mother and his sons, waving them with fans and programs and giving hugs.
Brett Favre, who had a home near McNair’s in Hattiesburg, sat a few rows behind the McNair family but did not speak. Doug Williams, the first black quarterback to win the Super Bowl, also was on hand.
