“The Mysterious Death of a Titan”

"Tonight the most complete picture yet of what happened to Steve McNair…"

That’s how tonight’s broadcast of Dateline NBC started, but anyone watching the program tonight thinking they might learn anything new about the circumstances surrounding the death of Steve McNair was more than likely very disappointed. This would probably be because the show shed light on absolutely nothing. Pretty much everything that was presented on the episode was well documented and reported within two weeks of McNair’s death (by reputable sources- not just the internet “crazies”) , and anyone that paid attention to the case at all should ask NBC for their hour back. I watched the show with Titan Sized’s good friend Jody Whelan, and we were kind of bracing ourselves for the possibility of  some new unflattering insights into the life of Steve McNair. We should have braced ourselves for some “journalism” that not even TMZ would be proud of. Some brief “highlights”:

• Athletes have a reputation for cheating on their wives. Really? Never would have guessed that, thanks. Need any proof? Why not buy one of the “steamy” novels written by the former assistant to Stephan Marbury whose expertise on the subject garnered a picture of her most recent book to be broadcast in primetime (with no interview on the subject to speak of, and certainly no relevance to McNair). Call me skeptical, but I wouldn’t be all that surprised if General Electric owns the publishing company of that recent entry into the literary cannon. I wonder if she has any short stories on the proper way to eat paste.
• WSMV’s Josh DeVine didn’t want to go to work on July 4th. Josh DeVine isn’t just the crack journalist that Jody and I didn’t recognize at first,  he’s also a regular guy who just wanted to grill out with his friends on the 4th, and not go to work. Fair enough, who wouldn’t feel the same way, but seriously- who the hell is Josh DeVine and why the hell was he on national television? Well, seeing that Rudy Kalis probably had the day off, Josh DeVine was probably the only guy from News Channel 4 who NBC has stock footage of reporting from the crime scene . News Channel 5 had the McNair story for over an hour before any other local station (or ESPN for that matter), and their guys had phone conversations with Eddie George and Chris Sanders (granted, not on the air) among others, before anyone else was broadcasting anything about the story. While I have no real preference for any of the local news outlets or anything against Mr. DeVine, he was only on the program because he works for our NBC affiliate and Dateline NBC is (believe it or not) on NBC.
• Someone who disagrees with the findings of Metro Nashville Police Department was willing to be interviewed. Yep, who would have guessed. Dateline used their last segment to present a possible scenario that differed with what the results of the investigation were. Maybe we were about to hear something crazy, something that would have justified watching the show even if it was grossly ridiculous. We got… Vincent Hill- former Nashville Police Officer- who doesn’t hide his dislike of Chief Serpas, tangled with his superiors over his role in a car chase and has never worked a homicide scene. His theory? Two shots to the chest and two to the head look like an execution, not a murder-suicide. That seems like that could be plausible, but absolutely no evidence or theories were presented outside of that. Motive? No. Suspects? No. Any reason not to air a singular opinion (not even a theory) of someone that has no expertise in the matter? Apparently not. People were paid actual money to put this on the air.

Basically, this show was absolutely worthless. I don’t know what I was expecting to see, but I thought a couple months removed from the event might give some “journalists” time to uncover aspects of the crime that would shed some new light as to what happened. I was wrong.

I should have watched the 4th quarter of the Texans-Vikings pre-season game.