Given his injury-plagued and not-always-stellar play with the Ravens over the past couple of seasons, it's easy to forget how good Steve McNair once was. Given his retirement announcement today, it seems like a good time to remember.

Five or six years ago, McNair was about the scariest thing in the NFL. He was prototypical in how he played the game, bringing every quality you could want in a quarterback. He was big, mobile, accurate, intelligent, and played through any injury you could imagine. You could've sawed the guy's right leg off in the 2nd quarter, and he'd be back after halftime with a prosthetic that he crafted out of a piece of the field goal post.

But he was also physically fearsome. In his prime, he was almost impossible to sack, and he made a ton of plays that a slower or smaller quarterback just couldn't have made. He had ridiculous athleticism, but it never come at the expense of being a pure quarterback.

In 2003, his co-MVP season, he threw for over 3,200 yards, 24 touchdowns, and had just 7 interceptions. And this was a guy whose value could never be wholly measured by stats. He just made plays.

When people remember Super Bowl XXXIV, they remember the last play, where Kevin Dyson came up just a yard short of the endzone. But right before that, McNair made one of those amazing, but typical-of-him plays that kept the Titans alive and put them in position to score.

The retirement papers haven't been officially filed yet. McNair's departure from the Titans two years ago was somewhat acrimonious, so I don't know if it's something he'd want, but I agree with the gang at Music City Miracles. I'd like to see him sign a one-day contract with Tennessee, and retire as a Titan.