The final, heart-stopping play of Super Bowl XXXIV has its own Wikipedia page.
But that's not the play that comes to my mind first when I think back to that game, and the efforts of Titans quarterback Steve McNair, who was found shot to death today in Nashville.
I was covering that game, on Jan. 30, 2000, for the Spartanburg Herald-Journal, sitting with the rest of the less-important media in the upper level of the Georgia Dome, so high I could have probably reached up and touched the roof.
The play I'll always remember is the next-to-last play of that Super Bowl. Not the last one.
It was classic McNair, avoiding multiple tacklers and a near sack, spinning and scrambling -- impossbily staying on his feet far behind the line of scrimmage -- and ultimately finding Kevin Dyson for a 16-yard gain to the Rams' 10-yard line with six seconds remaining. Without that effort by McNair, there almost certainly is no Famous Last Play.
McNair, in his prime, was one of only a small handful of NFL quarterbacks in history who could have pulled off that next-to-last play, given the pressure of the situation.
That was my jaw-dropping moment from Super Bowl XXXIV.
That's my Steve McNair memory.
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