A word of caution to all married (and unmarried but attached) men who can’t resist the urge to step outside of your relationships: Don’t sleep.

Back in the day, when the black community still had values and high morals, men would still creep. But it was understood that a man never went to sleep with a jumpoff in his hotel room.

The true playa’s motto was: hit it then quit it. They never let their emotions get involved because they valued what they had at home.

About 6 years ago, I received a letter from a reader. Inside the letter was a photo of an industry baller sound asleep in what looked like a hotel room. In his open hand lay a sex toy.

The letter author was, of course, a pissed jumpoff. In her lengthy letter she asked me to put him on blast by posting the letter and photo on my website. I declined her request due to the fact that I knew him and he was a genuinely nice guy.

But being a genuinely nice guy didn’t save NFL baller Steve McNair from the wrath of his 20-year-old jumpoff, Sahel Kazemi.

McNair, 36, met the then 19-year-old Kazemi six months ago at a Nashville Dave & Busters where the McNair family often ate. The two exchanged numbers and Kazemi became just another notch in the notorious playboy’s belt.

Kazemi, who police say was spiraling out of control in the last week of her life, confided in a co-worker that she wanted to end it all.

Sometime between Thursday and Friday last week, Kazemi bought a 9mm handgun off a friend for $100. Late Friday evening, she used a key McNair had given her to let herself into his rented downtown Nashville condo. No one knows what transpired after McNair arrived home at 1:30 a.m. early Saturday morning.

What police do know is Kazemi crept up on McNair as he slept soundly on a sofa and pumped 4 bullets into him — one shot to the head, two to the chest, then a final shot to the head.

Police say Kazemi then sat on the sofa next to McNair’s body and tried to stage the scene so that she would fall into his lap after shooting herself. But her body slid onto the floor at his feet. The murder weapon was found under her. Her hand later tested positive for gunshot residue.

Police theorize that Kazemi learned about another chick McNair was creeping with and she even followed the other chick home one night. It was the classic case of a mistress deciding if she couldn’t have him, no one else would.

There was a time when a cheating dog only had to worry about his jumpoff rifling through his pockets as he slept. But times have changed.