In just a couple of weeks, New Orleans Saints linebacker Demario Davis will begin his 13th NFL season. Most NFL players who are 35 years old are either kickers or quarterbacks — those who avoid regular contact. Thirty-five-year-old linebackers, on the other hand, have usually long since retired.
Not Demario Davis, the oldest linebacker in the NFL. In fact, he’s getting better with age.
>> Subscribe to Sports Spectrum Magazine for more stories where sports and faith connect <<
During the 2023-24 regular season, Davis recorded the second-most tackles of his career (121) and earned his second consecutive Pro Bowl nod. They are the only two Pro Bowl selections of his career, despite being named a first-team All-Pro for the first time in 2019, when he was 30. He’s been a second-team All-Pro every year since then. In each of the last seven seasons, he’s amassed more than 100 tackles, and not since his rookie year with the New York Jets in 2012 has he recorded fewer than 90. What’s more, the only game he’s missed in his career came in 2021, when he was diagnosed with COVID.
Last week in an appearance on Fox Sports Radio’s “The Herd” with Colin Cowherd, Davis explained why his career has had the trajectory it has.
“Why am I still playing? It’s because God is not done with what He’s doing with me in the game yet,” he said. “I’ll play as long as He tells me to keep going, because it’s Him that’s extending my platform because He knows what I’m gonna do with it. He knows every time I get in a seat like this, I’m gonna give glory to my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. I’m gonna say it’s because of Him that I’m here.”
Davis later told the listeners that they too can enjoy knowing and being known by God.
“He wants to have that same type of connection and relationship with you. … [My career is] a platform that gives me an opportunity to talk about Him, and as long as He wants to use it for that, I’m gonna do it.”
"He knows every time I get in a seat like this, I'm going to give glory to my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ."
Saints LB @demario__davis gives glory to God in an appearance on The Herd with Colin Cowherd on Fox Sports Radio and FS1. pic.twitter.com/vIc7izgegy
— Sports Spectrum (@Sports_Spectrum) August 13, 2024
Davis also mentioned briefly on “The Herd” a moment in his career when he seriously considered retirement. It was 2017, and he had just finished his one and only season with the Cleveland Browns.
“I was ready to retire, and I said, ‘God, my body is broke down, my mind is broke down, I can’t do it anymore. But if You want me to go forward, I’ll keep going.’ And I’m praying this,” Davis recounted. “God literally spoke to me internally and was just like, ‘I got it. You wave the white flag, I got it from here.’ And so I can’t help but to use this platform to continue to give Him glory every time.”
In a feature for Sports Spectrum Magazine from the Fall 2022 edition, Davis further explained that pivotal moment in his career.
“I’m like, ‘God, OK. I surrender. I wave the white flag. … If You want me to go forward, You have to rejuvenate my mind. You have to rejuvenate my body,'” he said, to which Davis says God responded, “Thank you for getting out of My way. The one thing I don’t want you to do is forget that you waved the white flag.”
Since surrendering his NFL career to God, Davis has sought to make the name of Jesus known at every opportunity. He was traded back to the Jets in June 2017, and that fall he recorded the most tackles of his career (135). He signed with the Saints as an unrestricted free agent the following offseason, and he’s seen his career take off. At the same time, so has his boldness in speaking openly about his Heavenly Father.
Davis has been a guest on the Sports Spectrum Podcast multiple times since signing with the Saints.
In 2019, he garnered national attention for being fined by the NFL for wearing a “Man of God” headband, but after public outrage, his fine was rescinded. Noticing the publicity, Davis started selling “Man of God” headbands online, and donated the proceeds — more than $300,000 — to St. Dominic Hospital in Jackson, Mississippi, where his mother once worked.
He’s preached the name of Christ during press conferences, spoken out against social injustices, accepted the 2021 faith-based Bart Starr Award, and much more. He says he’s a “Servant of Christ” in his Instagram bio, and has had an “immense fire” for the Kingdom of God since entering into a relationship with Christ when Davis was in college.
All the while, Davis works tirelessly year round to train his body and mind to be ready for game days. And he has no plans of slowing down any time soon. In fact, Davis signed a new contract with the Saints in March that will keep him in New Orleans through the 2025-26 season.
Yet even though he’s praised league-wide for his incredible durability and longevity, Davis knows none of it is owing to himself.
“This is the work that He’s doing and not me,” Davis said in the magazine feature. “So [football success is] for me to never feel like it’s coming from my body, for me to never feel like it’s coming from my mind or my intellect or anything, except the Spirit that He’s placed inside me.”
Davis and the Saints begin the regular season at home on Sept. 8 against the Carolina Panthers. The game is set for 1 p.m. ET.
>> Do you know Christ personally? Learn how you can commit your life to Him. <<
RELATED STORIES:
– Saints LB Demario Davis shares about daughter, ‘knock from God’
– WATCH: ‘I ONCE WAS’ – NFL linebacker Demario Davis
– MAGAZINE: New Orleans linebacker Demario Davis is A Spirit-Led Saint
– SS PODCAST: Saints’ Demario Davis on living for Jesus, finding his identity
– Tamela, Demario Davis share how God worked through daughter’s eye cancer
