Stream It Or Skip It: 'UNTOLD: The Murder of Air McNair' on Netflix, a look back at the shocking shooting death of the Tennessee Titans legend (2024)

Steve McNair was a star. First at Alcorn State, then in a Pro Bowl career for the NFL’s Tennessee Titans, the quarterback become a beloved figure in Nashville and beyond. Then, on July 4th, 2009, he was found shot dead. UNTOLD: The Murder of Air McNair, the latest installment in Netflix’s sports documentary imprint, explores what happened.

UNTOLD: THE MURDER OF AIR MCNAIR: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

The Gist: The Murder of Air McNair is a pretty straightforward true-crime documentary, with a vein of sports doc running through it — we learn about Steve McNair’s football career, but the bulk of the runtime is dedicated to his murder and the investigation that ensued. Archival news and game footage is paired with interviews with McNair’s football contemporaries as well as reporters and police who worked to unpack his death.

What Movies Will It Remind You Of?: Netflix’s UNTOLD series is in its fourth run of standalone sports documentaries, and it’s focused on some weighty topics, but none as serious as a murder-suicide. The Murder of Air McNair is closer to cable-TV true-crime documentaries than 30 For 30s.

Performance Worth Watching: Many of the important figures in McNair’s life and career make appearances here, including longtime friend and Alcorn State teammate Robert Gaddy, one of the first people to see McNair after he died. Some of the most emotional testimony comes from his Titans coach, Jeff Fisher, who still breaks up speaking about his player and friend.

Memorable Dialogue: “It was all about timing,” Jeff Fisher reflects on Steve McNair’s career meshing with his rising team’s needs. “With the exception of the ending, it couldn’t have worked out any better,” he adds sadly.

Sex and Skin: None, although there are implications about the sexual nature of McNair and Kazemi’s relationship.

Our Take: Steve McNair was a beloved football player, and Steve McNair was murdered. That’s the top-line summary of the story behind UNTOLD: The Murder of Air McNair, and it’s certainly a tragic one. Is the story any more complex than that, though?

This documentary plays out largely like other true-crime documentaries, or perhaps an episode of Dateline. Two threads converge: a happy life and a sad ending. The facts behind the latter are widely known: on July 4th, 2009, McNair was found dead from multiple gunshot wounds, alongside the body of his girlfriend, 20-year old Sahel “Jenni” Kazemi. An investigation was launched, and various suspects were considered—among them a longtime friend and business associate of McNair’s, and the jealous ex-boyfriend of Kazemi. In the end, though, the conclusion was a murder-suicide committed by Kazemi.

Due coverage is given to the crime and its investigation: we see footage of various police interviews, including with Robert Gaddy, the business associate, Wayne Neely, another friend of McNair’s, and Keith Norfleet, the ex-boyfriend. We also hear audio recordings of interviews police conducted with Kazemi’s coworkers and friends, one that shed light on the nature of their relationship. These various pieces are placed into a coherent narrative largely through the efforts of reporter Amy Viteri, who worked at the time for WKRN News in Nashville and covered the story as it unfolded.

This true-crime story somewhat awkwardly meshes with a retrospective of McNair’s career, including his drafting by the then-Houston Oilers and his role in the “Music City Miracle” playoff win against the Buffalo Bills in 2000, a thrilling step on the way to a heartbreaking, one-yard-short last-second loss in Super Bowl XXXIV to the “Greatest Show on Turf” St. Louis Rams.

It’s nearly the end of the hour-long documentary when an alternate theory to McNair’s death is aired by private investigator Vincent Hill, who suggests that the murder might have been committed by Adrian Gilliam, a former lover of Kazemi’s, and that it might’ve been connected to a financial disagreement between McNair and Gaddy. Gaddy, for his part, is clearly enraged by the suggestion. “What Vincent Hill did and is doing is totally disgusting.” Fisher, clearly uncomfortable with the discussion, is more circ*mspect. “I can make a case that things don’t add up. I can make a case that, well, boy, that could be a possibility as well. I don’t know. I don’t want to speculate.”

It’s hard not to feel like this would-be curveball comes in so late because there’s really not much to the theory, and it feels like an attempt to inject ambiguity into a story that doesn’t really have much. If it had weight behind it, it could be the meat of the documentary–instead, it feels like a disrespectful footnote. Either way, it doesn’t change the tragedy of what happened.

Our Call: SKIP IT. The Murder of Air McNair is a straightforward telling of an undeniably tragic story, but ultimately that story simply doesn’t have enough to make it a compelling watch.

ScottHines, publisher of the widely-beloved Action Cookbook Newsletter,is an architect, blogger and proficient internet user based in Louisville, Kentucky.