The first thing too many athletically gifted people do when they sign a $28 million professional sports contract is form a posse, gather an entourage and party to the extreme.

The first thing Steve “Air” McNair did was marry the love of his young life, Mechelle Cartwright of Vicksburg, a member of the Golden Girls dance team at Alcorn State University, where McNair, from Mount Olive, was the star quarterback on the football team.

There was no pretension about the couple, no puffed-up air of self-importance.

In fact, the new Mrs. McNair continued nursing school despite the fact that a paycheck was something it was clear she would never need.

A week ago Saturday, Steve McNair’s life ended.

Police in Nashville say the case is closed. A 20-year-old waitress he met and with whom he was reported to be romantically involved, Saleh Kazemi, shot him four times and then turned her gun on herself.

McNair’s passing statistics are legendary in college football. It’s highly unusual for even a really strong player at a school as small as 3,000-student Alcorn even to be considered for national recognition, yet McNair was one of three finalists for the Heisman Trophy, awarded to the best player in America.

As a professional athlete, he took the Tennessee Titans to the Super Bowl. You could bet that anytime a Titan game was on TV, hundreds of people in this town would be tuned in to watch McNair play. His talent and dedication to the sport were spectacular, and it showed on every snap.

Off the field, he never lost his humility. He was generous with his money and his time. And he didn’t just lend his name to sports camps for youths. He’d be out there on the field, working, sweating and staying around to clean up after sessions ended.

That he would die in such circumstances was met with disbelief in this city, where so many of his friends and kin reside. This was not the Steve McNair they knew, not in keeping with the life he led and the example he set.

It is that example, however, and not his apparent departure from it, that should stand as his legacy.

There are enough athletes and celebrities who are models of irresponsibility and incivility. We’ll remember Steve McNair for the good things he did. They far outnumbered the bad.