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New Orleans Saints linebacker Demario Davis is a three-time All-Pro.
The 34-year-old Mississippi native is also a team captain for the sixth time since joining New Orleans in 2018.
And after listening to him speaking following the Saints‘ 16-15 victory over the Tennessee Titans in Week 1, it’s not hard to understand why.
“The word says who Jesus is, He’s knocking on the door, all you gotta do is get up.”
This is a powerful story told by Saints linebacker @demario__davis. A must watch! pic.twitter.com/a6Zjsfnt85
— Jason Romano (@JasonRomano) September 11, 2023
Before even being asked a question, Davis stepped up to the mic and launched into a remarkable story.
He began by discussion his religion and the praise that players receive for playing football. But nobody could have imagined where it went from there.
“I wanna tell y’all about a knock that I heart this week,” referring to the aforementioned bible verse he read. “A lot of people don’t know this, but on Friday my daughter, she’s four years old, she had her third epilepsy seizure attack. It’s my same daughter who survived retinoblastoma. She’s been totally cleared of that.
“But she had her third seizure. And it’s been almost two years. She was about a month away. If she would have had no seizures for one more month than she would have been off the medicine. But now we have to start that clock all the way over.
Davis said that he noticed the incident on Friday when she was playing with friends at their house. He told his wife and the two took their daughter into her room to avoid causing a scene.
The seizure became serious. Davis says it was her “worst seizure” and that it lasted 30 minutes. Davis and his wife called paramedics who took his daughter to the hospital.
He says he feared for her life. When they arrived at hospital, Davis’ wife told him that their daughter stopped breathing twice while on the way to the hospital.
Doctors then gave their daughter medicine and the seizure subsided.
Davis said he then worried about development issues and how the event may affect her long-term health.
But then things turned.
In the middle of the night, Davis says he heard a knock on their hospital door (which was adjacent to the room his daughter was in).
His daughter entered the room and began to talk, without showing showing any side effects of the seizure.
“She was talking clearer than before,” he said. “And it was 3 o’clock. We heard her talk. We let her talk for about 20 minutes and we said ‘hey baby, it’s nighttime. Let’s go back to sleep.'”
Davis said that the next morning that his daughter was sharper than he could ever remember.
Later that day, their daughter was able to come home and attend a birthday party for Davis and his wife’s elder daughter, who is seven.
“We get to play this game, and it’s great,” Davis finally said. “And it’s so many amazing things that happen at that game. And everybody wants to hear about ’em. But when we go leave this game, we go back to being regular people. And regular people are living life.”
Davis wrapped up his statement by talking about how his faith not only helped him through the incident, but also how it helps him every day.
“The game is going to take care of itself,” he said. “My knock had already been answered.”
It was a beautiful story about faith, resilience and humility and reminder that pro athletes are human before all else.