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Jul 5, 2009 01:45 PM
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First it was a double homicide. Then it was murder-suicide. Now it's just tragic and sad. And TMZ has pictures of the doomed couple parasailing.
The Tennessean has gone into full-court press covering this story since the first police report hit the scanner, offering updates every hour new information was available. But there's still a back-story that's missing here: Either McNair had a very open relationship with his wife, or a very open affair going on with a disturbed 20-year-old Dave & Buster's waitress for the past few months. The fawning tributes aside — and much deserved: McNair was brute on the field and a nice guy off of it — there are so many shady details that have still yet to materialize. One, I find it a little questionable that Sahel Kazemi's ex-boyfriend, Keith Norfleet, is so readily available with intimate knowledge of this relationship:
Keith Norfleet, who said he dated Kazemi for four years before they broke up five months ago, was worried about her dating McNair, a married man. She met McNair while she was a waitress at Dave & Buster's Grand Sports Cafe, he said.
Norfleet said he moved here with Kazemi from Jacksonville, Fla., where her family lives. She was raised by a sister. Her mother, a native of Iran, was murdered when Kazemi was 9, Norfleet said.
"She is the sweetest girl, and she did not deserve this," Norfleet said upon learning of her death. "He was making her believe they were going to be together and everything would be perfect."
Norfleet said they'd been speaking a lot recently and she planned to break it off with McNair. He said she banged on his apartment door early Saturday morning, but she left before he could get to the door. He spent much of Saturday afternoon looking for her and trying to find out if she was the woman who died with McNair.
"She was a very strong, independent girl. A hard worker," said Norfleet, who had hoped to get back together with her. "She had a huge heart. She was very caring, very loving."
Up until the moment she (allegedly) shot Steve McNair, that is, but with one bullet-riddled ex-NFL quarterback on a couch and his mistress in close proximity with a single gunshot wound to the head and the gun laying next to her, the chances of this being an elaborate double homicide seem slim. But Kazemi's family is adamant she didn't kill McNair:
"She was one, young girl who had so many dreams that they never came true. She would never kill anyone, ever. Or anything. Not even a little bug. I want people to know that."
How about a big bug? Like a Chinese flying cockroach? Would she kill that? Because that's a crucial detail in order to implicate a person with homicidal tendencies. So I've heard.
McNair was beloved in Nashville, deified by the NFL for his resiliency, and seemed to have a happy post-NFL career going for him. Hopefully, the sordid details released about McNair and Kazemi's relationship won't overshadow those parts of his life, but, right now, it doesn't seem likely.
Steve McNair Blanket Coverage [The Tennesseean]
Send an email to A.J. Daulerio, the author of this post, at ajd@deadspin.com.
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