It’s hard to remember that Steve McNair was ever young. The way he has been mythologized, with all of the injuries he played through and all the nicks and bruises and strains and turf toes he endured, it’s almost as if we have this collective memory of McNair staggering back to the huddle after each and every play like he was Fred Sanford in a football helmet.

But go back and watch the moment before the moment here. Really look at the self-assured, steely-eyed glare and the knowing smirk on the 27-year-old McNair’s face as he comes in off the bench for a third-and-11, trailing 20-16 against the Titans’ hated rivals, the Pittsburgh Steelers, on Sept. 24, 2000.

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He’s backed up in his own territory. He’s barely practiced the past two weeks because of a bruised sternum. Neil O’Donnell has just been knocked out of the game with a bloodied lip.

And here is No. 4 on The Tennessean’s list of Tennessee Titans’ best moments.

So McNair trots on the field, calm and serene and looking about as un-Fred-Sanford-like as anyone has ever looked. He collects a shotgun snap, seamlessly flows into his five-step drop, hops forward into a clean pocket and delivers a gorgeous 22-yard strike to Chris Sanders between the hashes and the numbers to extend the drive.

In the ensuing moments, strangely, the old man McNair mythos is born. Bruised sternum and all, he scrambled for 9 yards on the next snap, taking a big hit instead of sliding or getting out of bounds. He gets right back up. He finds Derrick Mason for 15 yards on the following play, then Erron Kinney for an 18-yard, go-ahead score.

The limping, the panting, the pained delight of a man who looks like Rocky Balboa after surviving 15 rounds against Apollo Creed, none of that’s on display here. McNair at his best — and honestly, the Titans at their all-time best — looked younger, sprier, more sedate and astonishingly unflappable.

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This was peak McNair, driving 64 yards in four plays and 70 seconds in hostile territory, delivering blow after blow to his embarrassed rivals without ever dropping that knowing smirk. His secret isn’t just that he was young once. It’s that he was always young, even when everyone else had it backward.

Nick Suss is the Titans beat writer for The Tennessean. Contact Nick at  nsuss@gannett.com. Follow Nick on X, the platform formerly called Twitter, @nicksuss.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Tennessee Titans best moments: Steve McNair wins off bench