NFL Wife’s Death a Shadow on Playoffs

Each time Steve Muhammad pulls a blue-and-white Indianapolis Colts jersey over his pads and takes the field, he’s realizing a dream he didn’t achieve alone.

His wife, Nichole Muhammad, acted as a catalyst for his career, marketing him to NFL teams, always telling him he could make it big.

“Had it not been for her unwavering devotion to her husband, it’s very likely that Steve Muhammad would not be playing football,” said her father, Michael Craig. “To the death, she loved that man.”

Her death in November was blamed on complications from childbirth. A coroner said she went into premature labor because of injuries she had suffered in a single-car accident three days earlier, as she drove the streets of Indianapolis alone looking for her husband.

Not blamed were injuries from her alleged roughing-up by Muhammad a few days earlier, for which he faces misdemeanor battery charges.

The family’s tragedy has cast a shadow over the Colts’ winning season and their hopes of reaching the Super Bowl.

Muhammad, who continues to play as a rookie on special teams and as a backup defensive player, has not commented publicly.

“I think it’s obviously a very difficult situation to handle your wife’s death and continue to perform a job at a very high level,” says his attorney, Jim Voyles Jr. Muhammad is devastated, he adds.

Gone is the woman who cheered him on for years.

Steve and Nichole met and were married in California. Just out of Fresno State, Muhammad was working odd jobs to support his family while dreaming of putting his athletic skills to use. Nichole Muhammad made videos and cover letters to send to pro teams, her father says.

In 1998, the couple’s work paid off and the British Columbia Lions of the Canadian Football League signed the 5-foot-10-inch, 180-pound Muhammad. He went on to become the CFL’s rookie of the year and led the league with 10 interceptions. Their dreams were finally coming true.

But there was trouble at home.

Nichole’s father said one night he received a frantic call from his daughter, who was at a hotel in Vancouver. She said Muhammad had become violent during an argument. “I was well aware of his abusive nature and propensity for violence,” Craig says.

Ty Burrell of Los Angeles grew up with Nichole and spoke with her regularly, sometimes discussing problems the couple had.

“It was always a back-and-forth battle, and it was always over money,” Burrell said. “He’d cash checks and walk around with the money in his pockets. They would be at the house hungry and without a car. He’d be off, not leaving them anything.”

In February of last year, Muhammad’s success in the CFL landed him a spot on the Colts’ roster. Again, Nichole played a part, spreading her husband’s name around and arranging interviews with pro teams.

His Colts salary has not been revealed, but NFL rookie free agents make a minimum of $175,000. Still, money apparently continued to be a problem.

“Nicole was a frequent visitor to the front office of the Colts team, complaining about Steve not supplying her with money so she could feed the kids,” Craig said from his home in Chicago. “It’s not as though the Colts were not aware of the impending disaster that occurred.”

The Colts organization declined to comment. Marion County prosecutor Scott Newman said the Colts did make an effort to help the Muhammads, but he would not elaborate.

On Oct. 28 the couple fought again--”a dispute over money in the household,” a police report called it.

The football player grabbed his wife’s right wrist, twisted it behind her back, pushed her against the bedroom wall of their townhouse, pushed her against a window and then to the floor, according to the police report.

Her 6-year-old son, Eric, ran to his mother’s rescue with a yellow plastic baseball bat, hitting Muhammad several times before Muhammad took the bat and, using his open hand, struck the child several times, the report said.

Nichole tried calling 911 twice, but her husband hung up the phone. On the third try she got through.

“Can I have the police, please,” she yelled to the operator, a child screaming in the background.

“What’s going on, ma’am?” the operator asked.

“My husband is beating up on me and the children,” she said, sobbing. “Hurry up, please. Hurry up, please.”

Two officers from the Marion County Sheriff’s Department arrived around midnight. They found Nichole, who was five months pregnant, with bruises to her back and light bruises on her left arm. Her son showed no signs of bruises.

Muhammad had left the townhouse but surrendered later and was charged with domestic battery.

On Oct. 31, Nichole called her father in Chicago and said she’d decided to leave Muhammad.

“Daddy, do you think this marriage can be saved?” she asked.

“Not when it turns violent,” he said.

Muhammad didn’t return home, and the following Thursday, a week after the alleged beating, Nichole went in search of him.

“She was out looking for him frantically in the middle of the night,” said Burrell, who spoke with her the next day.

While out, Nichole apparently ran her car into a pole. She didn’t report the accident, but investigators found evidence that she’d been in an accident and was alone at the time.

On Saturday she went to Methodist Hospital complaining of abdominal pains. Muhammad was by her side that night.

The baby was stillborn at 5:50 a.m. Sunday, and Nichole died at 1:30 p.m.

Her death was caused by complications during the delivery and excessive bleeding, Marion County Deputy Coroner Frances Kelly said. Her injuries from the auto accident apparently sent her into premature labor. Those injuries, to her chest and lower abdomen, appeared “consistent with a steering wheel she hit,” Kelly said.

Dr. John Pless, an Indiana University forensic scientist, said the injuries to her back and arm suffered at the time of the alleged battery were small and “not significant.”

Detective Mike Turner of the Marion County Sheriff’s Department investigated the alleged battery and Nichole’s death, and said he could find no connection between the two.

The county prosecutor’s investigation is ongoing, and Muhammad’s next hearing on the battery charges is scheduled for March 21.

He has custody of the couple’s 1-year-old daughter, Masai. Six-year-old Eric is with family members.

Muhammad was excused from the Colts for three weeks while he attended his wife’s funeral and got his affairs in order, but he has played every game since.

This Sunday, when the Colts take the field against the Tennessee Titans, Muhammad will be in the national spotlight, just as he and his wife once dreamed. But now he lives the dream alone.

Nichole’s father says what could have been a storybook life is over. “They had everything going for them.”