Most afternoons he’d sit solo within the again nook of the Indianapolis Colts’ locker room, consuming alone whereas teammates gathered for lunch contained in the cafeteria. He appeared unbothered by the bustle surrounding him — music thumping, reporters mingling, gamers hollering backwards and forwards as observe neared.
Vontae Davis slumped on his stool in silence, his again to the room, selecting at his meals from a Styrofoam takeout field. The scene spoke to his position on the sector — a lockdown cornerback, Davis typically labored on an island, remoted in man-to-man protection towards the opposition’s most deadly huge receiver. There was little room for error. Getting beat normally meant a landing.
The job was each thankless and unforgiving, among the many most grueling in professional soccer. It was as a lot a psychological grind because it was a bodily one. Most groups weren’t —and nonetheless aren’t — keen to go away their prime nook on their lonesome, with none security assist excessive, as a result of most easily aren’t ok.
At his finest, Vontae Davis was.
“If you would like a cornerback to play on an island,” he as soon as informed me, “I’m the make-up of that.”
The previous first-round choose as soon as went 25 straight video games with out permitting a landing in protection. In 2014, opposing quarterbacks posted a passer ranking of 38.8 when throwing his means. For a short stretch that season, undeniably the very best of Davis’ 10-year profession, some QBs stopped wanting his course altogether, together with in a Week 4 win over the Titans during which Davis wasn’t thrown at a single time.
Forty-three snaps. Zero targets. Half the sector erased by a single participant. Chuck Pagano, his coach on the time, would name it the equal of a beginning cornerback pitching an ideal recreation.
Davis made two Professional Bowls. He was the very best participant on the sector within the Colts’ largest playoff win of the post-Peyton Manning period, a 24-13 upset of Manning’s Broncos within the 2014 divisional spherical. He was beloved by teammates — the high-pitched voice they couldn’t perceive half the time, the 1,000-watt smile that lit up each assembly room, the amiable character that touched everybody within the constructing.
That’s the Davis I acquired to know throughout his six seasons in Indianapolis. He was a personality all his personal, as comfy stuffing a working again in entrance of 63,000 followers as he was sitting in silence within the quiet of the locker room.
Davis would struggle with the receivers on the observe subject after dropping a rep, then hug them afterward. He might be each introverted and insightful in dialog. On recreation days, he might be gentle and unfastened one minute — dancing within the huddle earlier than kickoff, jiving with teammates — then a menace as quickly because the ball was snapped, jawing at anybody who examined him.
However beneath the fiery exterior flashed on Sundays, Davis was a kind-hearted child who was raised by his grandma. He was endlessly well mannered and at all times welcoming, even to nosy reporters who interrupted his lunch sometimes.
Which is why, for therefore many, Monday’s information that Davis was discovered useless at his South Florida dwelling was devastating. For his close-knit household, together with older brother Vernon, a longtime NFL tight finish to whom Vontae at all times regarded up. For the teammates who beloved him and realized from watching him work. For the coaches who watched him develop from discarded Miami Dolphin to the most effective corners within the recreation in Indianapolis.
“Such a tragedy,” texted Pagano, who was instrumental in resurrecting Davis’ profession after he flamed out in Miami and was traded to the Colts in 2012.
“I nonetheless can’t consider it,” added former defensive captain, D’Qwell Jackson. “He was like my little brother.”
“I don’t wanna consider you gone,” T.Y. Hilton wrote on X.
Unhappy Day. We used to battle on a regular basis in observe. Generally it led to a bunch of bickering and virtually fights. 😂😢. We acquired one another higher. It was a pleasure carrying the horseshoe with you homie. Relaxation simple “Champ.” Praying for your loved ones and love ones. 🙏🏾🙏🏾 🙏🏾 R.I.P. #VD21 pic.twitter.com/zfb8efeX2o
— Reggie Wayne (@ReggieWayne_17) April 1, 2024
At this level, teammates and coaches are left asking the identical questions as the remainder of us after Davie (Fl.) officers responded to an emergency name from Davis’ home assistant early Monday morning. Preliminary info suggests foul play was “not concerned,” in response to the authorities. Davis was simply 35. The investigation stays lively.
Throughout his enjoying days, I at all times thought Davis’ status across the league belied the quiet, compassionate individual he was behind the scenes. His response to the information the Dolphins had been buying and selling him, caught by HBO’s “Arduous Knocks” cameras, went viral. “I’m going to name my grandmother,” was his first intuition. That’s about all anybody knew him for.
However there was extra to him, and the change in surroundings modified the course of his profession.
Davis matured in Indy thanks largely to Pagano, who taught him learn how to be a professional. In observe, he warred with Hilton and Reggie Wayne and made each higher. With longtime defensive stalwart Robert Mathis sidelined in 2014 after rupturing his Achilles’ tendon, Davis carried the unit all the way in which to the AFC title recreation, posting eight tackles and 5 passes defensed in that divisional playoff win over the Broncos.
He fought via nagging accidents all through his profession, hardly ever lacking a begin. At one level close to the tip of the 2016 season, Davis had practiced simply 14 instances for the reason that finish of coaching camp, dogged by a bum ankle, a concussion, one other bum ankle, then a groin pull.
In some way, he missed simply two video games.
Teammates got here to laud his toughness. And over time, Davis got here to understand what had been holding him again early in his profession: himself.
“Once I take into consideration Miami, I sit again and snort,” he as soon as informed me. “It’s loopy to me how far I’ve come since then.”
His exit from Indianapolis was messy. When an elite cornerback loses his top-end pace the remainder goes rapidly, and Davis’ play slipped through the 2017 season. The Colts benched him. Davis vented his frustrations to the media, then elected to have groin surgical procedure towards the crew’s needs. The Colts lower him a day later.
Davis signed a one-year, $5 million with the Payments the next offseason, searching for a restart. Then, with Buffalo trailing 28-6 within the first half of a Week 2 recreation towards the Chargers, he determined he was completed, proper then and there. A couple of minutes earlier than halftime, he walked to the locker room and took off his uniform for the final time.
He was in road garments earlier than the third quarter began. He drove dwelling and by no means regarded again. Teammates and coaches had been flabbergasted. Davis would insist in interviews that he was at peace.
“He retired, wrote a test again to the group like, ‘Hey, I’m happening with my life,’” former teamamte Darius Butler stated on “The Pat McAfee Present” Monday. “He form of lived his life to the beat of his personal drum.”
On his personal Instagram, Davis poked enjoyable at his personal expense. “Former NFL cornerback, two-time Professional Bowler, and halftime retirement sensation in 2018,” he wrote.
We’re devastated to listen to of Vontae Davis’s passing. He shall be deeply missed, and we ship our prayers to his household and family members. pic.twitter.com/K10FdaLmNV
— Indianapolis Colts (@Colts) April 1, 2024
Perhaps Davis struggled to discover a goal after soccer ended. He wouldn’t be alone on that entrance. Nonetheless, he saved in contact together with his previous teammates. Hilton wrote that they FaceTimed “a few weeks in the past.” Jackson stated they spoke typically.
McAfee and Butler tried to maintain it collectively on their present Monday, conscious that the information may slip out whereas they had been stay on the air. When it did, they fought via their very own feelings to pay tribute. “If you happen to knew him, you liked him and also you loved the hell out of him,” McAfee stated.
“I’ll at all times bear in mind him,” Butler added.
Pagano echoed the sentiment of so many left shocked and shaken after studying they’d misplaced one in all their very own.
“Devastating and Heartbreaking information,” Pagano wrote on X. “My ideas and prayer exit to the Davis household. It was an absolute honor and privilege being his coach in Indy. Nice participant however higher individual. Beloved him like a son. RIP Vontae.”
(Picture of Davis, left, and Darius Butler: Zach Bolinger / Getty Pictures)