Rogelio V. Solis / AP

About 1,000 people braved warm temperatures and high humidity to attend a public visitation at the Reeves Funeral Home of former NFL star and native Steve McNair in Mount Olive, Miss.

“Athletics, it makes the town go in a sense, and when somebody like this makes it big everybody around here is proud of him,” said Norman Johnston, an assistant football coach at the high school. “So when a person like him dies, it affects everybody. Rich, poor, black, white, it really has an effect on people because it doesn’t happen every day that somebody makes it big.”

Mount Olive, like a lot of the small towns in the Deep South, is football crazy. Replays of college football games were on the TV on a summer afternoon in the local pharmacy.

Life is slow here. Coke in a bottle is served from an old cooler tucked behind a marble soda counter at Powell Drugs.

Football fills the void for the kids who look up to the players and for the men who constantly handicap the high school team’s chances. People look forward to fall Friday nights all year long. They talk about it, think about it, examine the roster for defects and seek out the coach to offer advice.

McNair tied the state record for interceptions and dominated conversations until his retirement after the 2007 season. He was the quintessential country boy: hardworking, polite and a pleasure to be around.

“He liked to ride horses, four-wheelers, shoot ball, swim,” said Mount Olive resident Andrew Autry, who spent time in both the huddle and the saddle with McNair. “You know, that’s about all you can do in the country.”

He ran errands for his mother, Lucille. He grilled meat during an annual barbecue for residents and he checked on the local team, held camps and signed autographs.

He bought uniforms for the high school and gave a 647-acre farm to his mother that locals have dubbed “The Ranch.”

Even Mount Olive residents who never met McNair felt they knew him. That is why the McNair family has provided buses for those who want to go to the funeral about 35 miles south of Mount Olive.

“As a whole, the town is distraught,” lifelong resident Mary Barnes said. “You can just feel the silence and the mourning in the town. There’s just such a silence here now.”

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