You’ve heard of the air guitar, right?

Well how about the air sling?

Late Sunday night, after his Titans were thoroughly pummeled by the Dolphins, Tennessee quarterback Steve McNair made his way out of Adelphia Coliseum holding his right arm tightly against his chest as if the battered wing was in an invisible sling.

"Are you worried about the arm?" someone asked McNair.

"Oh yes, very much so," he said.

Ya know, Bills coach Gregg Williams, the former defensive coordinator for the Titans, once told me McNair was one of the toughest football players he had ever seen. Football players are like Monty Python characters in their ability to shake off even the nastiest, most grotesque injuries. So to hear McNair admit that his arm was hurting and watch him gingerly protect his delicate right shoulder in an air-sling, well, these were ominous signs for Titans fans.

Remember, the Titans are banking, to the tune of $47 million, that McNair’s troublesome right shoulder is back to normal after a summer-long rehab. So when McNair assessed the damage after the game it practically sent a gasp through the Volunteer State.

"It’s hurting," McNair said. "Hopefully this is not something long term and we can get it ready in the next week or two."

He said after getting hit late in the third quarter that the whole arm went numb and the strength never returned. But I'm not so sure it was ever there to begin with. I wonder if this is as good as McNair's rehabbed arm gets. I mean, he was floating wobbly passes above his receivers’ heads all night long.

So I followed McNair as he made his way out of the stadium, hoping to ask him a few questions along the way about his supposedly shredded right shoulder.

Almost immediately he was stopped for an autograph.

I expected him to grimace and howl in pain as he scratched his name on a piece of paper. Instead, McNair dropped his right arm out of his imaginary (McN)air-sling, palmed the ball, a hat and other items and signed away for a good 10-15 minutes with no noticeable pain or problem.

No further questions were necessary.

Now I’m starting to wonder if McNair was wearing an air sling, or a hot air sling.

David Fleming covers the NFL for ESPN The Magazine. E-mail him at flemfile@aol.com.