McNair

  In 1996, the Cleveland Browns ceased to exist.  No more did my favorite team exist.  For a lot of Ohio sports fans, a gap now existed.  The various teams from around the region got their pull, as young people turned to the Steelers and the Bengals.  For some of us, the idea of turning to the lesser Ohio team and the arch-rival Steelers was upsetting.  So I was forced to turn to other teams.  I enjoyed watching the Oakland Raiders, but Jeff George always made me gag just a bit.  Miami was popular with a lot of people. but I never jumped on that bandwagon.  That left one team that interested me above the others, the Houston Oilers.  The Oilers, despite being an in-division opponent to my Browns in the AFC Central, became the team I latched on to, despite watching them move to Tennessee and becoming the Titans.  While I felt slightly hypocritical for rooting for a team that relocated, I couldn't help it.  The man responsible?  Eddie George.

    Eddie George played for The Ohio State University, and like anyone who grew up in Columbus, I was a huge fan of the Buckeyes. And the 1996 draft was full of top flight Buckeye talent, with three Buckeyes going in the top 15, and two more going in the top 5 in 1997 (Orlando Pace and Shawn Springs).  But of all the Buckeyes, Eddie George was my favorite.  I got to see him  run for a slew of yards against Illinois (the second half of the video clip on the right).  I cheered for him in the NFL, and it broke my heart to see him wear the Dallas Star.  But because of Eddie George, I became a big fan of a young QB out of Alcorn State by the name of Steve McNair.

    The McNair-George Combo became for me much like the Rice-Montana, Manning-Wayne, Aikman-Smith combo's that so wowed people in the 80's 90's and 00's.  I could not think of one without the other.  And watching them blaze through the late 90's was one heck of an experience.  McNair as the always physical warrior, and George the plowman.  They weren't the most exciting combo on the field, they could never match the Air Coryell's, the Greatest Show on Turf or the New England Spread, but the McNair-George combo got it done.  And I loved it.  Watching physical, smashmouth football was what I enjoyed most of all, and Steve McNair and Eddie George dolled it out.  But now, with last week's retirement by the Raven (booo) Steve McNair, the duo has ended.  Even in Baltimore, that despised team, I wanted George to do well.  Although I wanted his team to be awful, I always hoped he would get another shot at a ring.  And ever since the Titans locked McNair out of their facilities and summarily dumped the man who had given so much swet and blood for his team, I have despised Tenneessee.

 So now, as McNair rides off into the sunset with 30,000+ passing yards, and over 3 thousand rushing yards, the most physical QB to have played the game will no longer grace the field.  It was for the best, as he put it himself, his body couldn't take it.  So I wish him the best of luck, and hope one day to see a bust of Steve McNair in the halls of Canton.