Steve McNair: on a mission back to the Super Bowl

McNair has a 643-acre ranch back in Mississippi, where he raises some 250 cattle and 30 horses. Ironically, it's the same land his mother used to work on. "I'll never forget the day when I took her out there to look at the property for the first time," he says. "All of sudden, her eyes started watering and tears started coming down her face. I said, 'What, you don't like it?' That was when she told me that it was the land she used to work" as a laborer.

McNair has since built two houses on the land, one for his mom and one for his family, which includes his wife, Mechelle, and four sons, Steve Jr., Steven, Tyler and Trenton. The family splits time between the ranch and a 15,000-square-foot home in Nashville. They moved into the home about a year ago, after totally renovating it. It has nine bedrooms, nine full bathrooms, two half baths, and three full kitchens. In the back yard, the family enjoys a large pool, complete with waterfall a hot tub and a golf putting green.

College sweethearts at Alcorn State, McNair and Mechelle admit it wasn't love at first sight. "Actually I didn't like him at first," says Mechelle, who studied nursing and is also from Mississippi. "People were saying that he was a great quarterback and he was going to be the next so and so. I couldn't care less."

The two finally hooked up during their junior year, and have since become inseparable. Raising four boys has been challenging, but also rewarding. "Fatherhood is great," McNair says. "Just to see them growing up, and to see them have the same traits as you. I see myself in them. It's a blessing. My wife wanted a girl, but we had boys. But it's fun."

Would he want them to play football? "I'm not a pushy father," he says. "Whatever they choose to play is fine with me. And if they choose not to play sports, that's fine also. I'm going to do whatever I can to help them. I do know one thing: they will get a college education."

McNair says that he loved his college experience. Having played both quarterback and cornerback in high school, McNair chose Alcorn because it seemed "family-oriented," and it was the only school that would allow him to play quarterback. "People told me to go to a bigger college, but everyone else wanted me to play defensive back," says McNair, who says that he may want to be a coach in the future. "Alcorn gave me the opportunity to play quarterback. I knew that I was taking a chance, but I knew I wanted to play the position that my heart wanted me to play."

It was Alcorn, McNair says, that helped give him the mental toughness that he has needed to understand the intricacies involved in being a Black quarterback in the NFL. "There will always be different treatment of Black quarterbacks," says McNair, who admires trailblazing quarterbacks Warren Moon and Randall Cunningham. "We have to do a lot more to get recognized. That's part of the game. And that's part of going out and competing, going out and doing the extra things to get recognition. It makes you work harder. It makes a better player out of you."