Untold: The Murder of Air McNair

It's a 1 hour review of his murder, the investigation, and the outcome. They do flash back to tell the story of his playing days which is important context for those who didn't know how big he was. Don't most documentaries give the background of the person who was murdered? The investigation was not complex and there really wasn't much more to be said. They tried to throw in a little drama at the end, but I don't think there is much merit to that. If people want more information about that drama I think they were expecting a much less straight forward case. Some murders are simple and don't need 3-4 episodes to explain.

Netflix and their "Untold" series are rolling out a few of their famed sports documentaries and one in particular caught my eye. "Untold: The Murder Of Air McNair", a documentary about Steve McNair being murdered in cold blood by his 20-year-old mistress. My favorite quarterback of all time? Yeah, I was excited to see what new information they were going to release and what they were going to highlight.

I mean it's been 15 years since McNair was killed on 4th of July in 2009 and they drop this on us out of nowhere, surely there has to be some new information here right? Not even close. This documentary was a complete waste of an hour. 0 new information presented an a just a waste of time. Kind of fitting that these Netflix sports docs are falling flat on their face. Swamp Kings was awful, the Johnny Manziel one was not done great at all, and this one now joins the others as time you'll never get back.

Now it wasn't all bad, we got some good quotes and stories from McNair's former coach, Jeff Fisher. My guy is sitting cool guy style in a leather chair just spitting some great stories. I did enjoy hearing from him, I'd have loved another hour of that. But other than that, there's nothing too good. Interviews with his friends and a former player, his old coach, some police and that is it. The doc bounces back and forth between his playing career and the timeline and events of the murder. But they just continue to go over things that we've already been told. 0 new redeeming qualities about this film.

Maybe the wildest part of the whole documentary was the interview with the mistress' ex-boyfriend. They basically made him relive the time his girlfriend broke up with him and started dating his favorite football player of all time while they still shared a lease. I mean talk about rubbing someones nose in it.

Talented NFL Quarterback Steve McNair becomes a superstar, and comes very close to winning the superbowl. His life is cut short however, when he is killed in 2009.

I hate to jump on the bandwagon, but this wasn't a particularly good documentary, for such a big story, it's just so poorly assembled. It's almost chaotic, it jumps about from one thing to another, and the pacing is somehow frantic.

Documentaries should be factual and informative, there must be a temptation to sensationalise them, and this one is guilty of that, it's too glossy, too heavily produced. Those interviews, come on, they're like scenes from a cheesy movie.

It certainly shows that McNair had a great life, halfway through I felt like I was watching a show about a saint, in reality he was an incredibly talented young man, who enjoyed the spotlight, and probably had a lot of fun.

That ending though, come on!!!

4/10.

Don't waste your time. It was awful. They tried to run the story of a football player along side a murder and ended up missing the story completely. Ended up with far more questions than answers and no actual answer of what really happened. Pointless. Could have been really good but there wasn't enough sustenance at all. More like a vague football documentary. An hour of my life I will never get back. There are far more and far better documentaries out there and done much better too. If you want to be left guessing, watch it, but you'll be guessing for all the wrong reasons. You don't get an answer.

As "Untold: The Murder of Air McNair" (2024 release; 58 min.) opens, it is "July 4, 2009" and Robert Gaddy, longtime friend of Titans QB Steve McNair, calls 911 in distress upon finding 2 dead bodies at McNair's apartment in Nashville. We then go back in time to 1995 when Jeff Fisher, interim head Coach of the Houston Oilers, is named head coach period, and Steve McNair is drafted in the first round of the NFL draft by Houston. At this point we are less than 10 minutes into the documentary.

Couple of comments: of course I remembered that McNair was killed in 2009 but I didn't remember the exact circumstances of this horrible event. This documentary aims to dig into those exact circumstances. At net even an hour of running time, this felt less like an in-depth assessment of a tragic, and more like a sensational paparazzi piece. In this particular piece, it turns out that Jeff Fisher is one of the most pivotal talking heads. Bottom line: this could've been a truly interesting review of Steve McNair's life, but instead we receive something that is interested only in the sensational headlines, and not the deeper background.

"Untold: The Murder of Air McNair" recently started streaming on Netflix, and Netflix recommended it to me based on my viewing habits. If you are a fan of the NFL or a fan of true crime, I'd readily suggest you check this out, with tempered expectations, and draw your own conclusion.