Former NFL star CB Vontae Davis suddenly passed away earlier this week at just the age of 35, leaving the football community shocked and seeking answers..
The former first-round NFL Draft pick of the Miami Dolphins in 2009 had a successful career and was once considered one of the top cornerbacks in the league. After Miami, he had a long stint with the Colts before eventually retiring with the Buffalo Bills.
He finished with 22 interceptions, 395 combined tackles and 97 passes defended over 121 games in his career.
Vernon Davis — who also had a prolific NFL career — is four years older than his younger brother Vontae and described himself as a father figure during their childhood.
Vernon is still trying to wrap around his head around the sudden death of Vontae Davis, but has a preliminary theory.
In an interview with the Daily Mail, Vernon said Vontae collapsed after stepping out of a sauna, insinuating he could have slipped or the sauna could have played a role in the sudden passing of his little brother.
Police say no foul play is suspected, and Vernon said Vontae “never showed a history” of drug use.
“This thing definitely caught me by surprise. I just don’t know what to make of it,” Vernon told the Daily Mail. “I’m leaning on the detectives to figure it out, but, right now, we have no answers.”
“They are going to run tests, and they said they’ll get back to us. It could be as long as a month, a month and a half, until we know anything.”
Vontae Davis was previously diagnosed with attention-deficit disorder.
“Maybe that’s the case, maybe it’s not,” Vernon said on whether it played a role in Vontae’s death.
“We don’t really have an answer to that because there is no way to see into our brain while we live. I was at his house two weeks ago, and he had the massage therapist there. He had a stretch therapist, a chiropractor, you name it.”
Vernon Says Vontae Davis Was ‘Like A Son’ To Him While Growing Up With Rough Childhood
Vernon and Vontae were estranged from their mother, Jacqueline Davies, for most of their life because of her past drug addiction.
“Watching my mom on drugs walking up and down the street was totally embarrassing for me as a kid,” Vernon told the Daily Mail in 2021. “As I got older, it lived in me and I had to learn how to channel those emotions because I had so much anger, pain and embarrassment inside of me.”
Vernon was able to reconcile with his mother shortly before her death from COVID. He recalled having to take his mom off life support after was left brain dead after suffering cardiac arrest from the illness.
“I watched my mother take her last breath. And it was the most painful thing that I have had to go through,” he added, noting that he got back in touch with his mother five years before her passing. “I did the best thing a son could ever do for his mom, is show up when she’s about to take her last breath. Other opportunities will come, you just have to be patient.”
Due to the instability throughout their childhood, Vernon felt like a father figure to Vontae Davis, who was four years younger than him.
“He was like my son. We were four years apart, but I remember waking him up to do workouts when he was young and I was in high school. I made him do it because I wanted him to succeed even more than I wanted myself to succeed. I’m proud of him for his great work ethic, for his ability, his discipline.”
“For understanding the difference between being good and great at something and for putting in the work. We were the difference makers in our family. We came from a tough background, but we had goals and aspirations to be better than the space we came out of. I could not have picked a better little brother.”
Vontae Davis was a first-round draft pick in 2009 by the Miami Dolphins, and he spent three seasons with the Dolphins before joining the Indianapolis Colts in 2012. He made two Pro Bowls with Indy before heading to the Bills in 2018.
Clearly there are still many unknowns surrounding his sudden death, Hopefully the family can find peace as more is revealed in the coming weeks.
