Jan. 30, 2000. That's how most of us will remember Steve McNair. That's the Sunday night that McNair almost led the Tennessee Titans over the St. Louis Rams in Super Bowl XXXIV inside Atlanta's Georgia Dome.

Yes, the quarterback's last-second pass to Kevin Dyson came up a yard shy of the goal in the 23-16 loss. No, he was never again able to will the Titans to that lofty perch. But McNair got them there, got them to the brink of immortality, and no true Titans fan could or should ever forget that oh-so-close moment.

But now there will be another memory, a sobering and somber memory, a troubling memory. Saturday afternoon, McNair and a young woman were found shot to death in downtown Nashville. That the woman was not his wife will surely lead to rampant rumors and be touted in tabloids for weeks to come.

The woman still unidentified early Saturday evening as police attempted to notify her family, CNN nevertheless reported that she was McNair's "girlfriend," apparently unaware or unconcerned that the retired quarterback's wife Mechelle or his sons might be watching.

Around-the-clock news isn't always concerned with sensitivity.

Yet the 36-year-old McNair rarely promoted himself as a husband, father or role model. He was a football player's football player, arguably the most physically tough quarterback of his generation.

If Titans coach Jeff Fisher apparently has so little tolerance for the uneven temperament of Vince Young, it may be because McNair was always the same through his 11 seasons with the franchise. Always steady. Always heady. Always ready, regardless of the piercing pain often shooting through his shoulder, back or legs.

A story to frame a career: McNair was so battered and bruised by the end of the 2002 season that he failed to practice for the last month of the season. Yet with No. 9 somehow under center on Sundays, the Titans won their last five regular-season games before eventually falling to Oakland in the AFC title game.

Prepared statements sometimes ring hollow at a time like this, but the words of Titans owner Bud Adams could speak no greater truth: "(McNair) played with unquestioned heart and leadership and led us to places that we had never reached."

McNair had come from places many might never wish to live. His mother raised Steve and his four brothers by herself on a small farm in Mount Olive, Miss. McNair mowed yards when he was 8 years old to help her pay the bills.

"But it made us close as a family," he said once.

We got close to him once upon a time right here in the Scenic City. McNair brought his Alcorn State team to Chamberlain Field to play the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. He threw for eight touchdowns and 491 yards against the Mocs, ran for 156 and pretty much cemented his eventual third-place finish for the 1994 Heisman Trophy.

Yet he came of age in Nashville, orchestrating the 1999 run to the Super Bowl, becoming the league's co-MVP in 2003 with Peyton Manning, almost always conducting himself -- at least in public -- with dignity and decency. If that gets trampled in the days to come, well, fame is fickle.

All of which brings me to Nov. 12, 2006. Having moved on to the Baltimore Ravens as the Titans elected to start over, McNair had just helped beat his old team 27-26 in Nashville. He was standing in the visitors' locker room, dapperly dressed in a dark blue suit and French blue shirt and tie. His youngest son grabbed his pants leg.

"It was really nice to be back," he said. "A part of me will always be a Titan."

Regardless of what's learned of his personal life in the days to come, some part of all Titans fans should always be proud of McNair the football player.