Ex-NFL star Vernon Davis is opening up about his brother, Vontae’s death earlier this week, revealing details of his final moments.
Vontae Davis’ body was found on Monday morning when a housekeeper arrived for work and noticed the former cornerback slumped motionless on the gym floor. Detectives have a continuing investigation into the unexplained death of the 35-year-old. However, their preliminary discoveries do not indicate any signs of foul play.
Vernon, 40, shared with The Daily Mail that his brother seemed to have collapsed or slipped shortly after leaving a sauna.
No signs of forced entry were found, and nothing appeared to be out of place at the luxurious $4 million mansion in Southwest Ranches. This exclusive enclave in South Florida is home to celebrities like Gisele Bundchen and Dwayne Johnson.
“This thing definitely caught me by surprise. I just don’t know what to make of it,” Vernon told the outlet. “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 and Veron Davis Both Enjoyed NFL Careers
Both brothers had thriving NFL careers. Vontae Davis played for the Dolphins, Colts, and Bills, while Vernon achieved victory in Super Bowl 50 with the Broncos. Vontae famously retired in the middle of a game in 2018.
Davis, playing for the Bills, put on his street clothes, left the stadium, and retired. “This isn’t how I pictured retiring from the NFL,” he said at the time. “But today on the field, reality hit me and hard. I shouldn’t be out there anymore.”
Vontae also expressed his concerns about the dangers of chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a severe brain condition resulting from repeated head impacts. “Yes he had CTE … there is definitely a story here,” his ex-wife Megan Harpe reportedly said to The Daily Mail via a text message.
Meanwhile, Vernon mentioned that his brother was diagnosed with attention-deficit disorder during his childhood. Despite this, his brother seemed to be in good health and had never brought up any issues related to a brain injury.
“Maybe that’s the case, maybe it’s not. We don’t really have an answer to that because there is no way to see into our brain while we live,” Vernon told the outlet. “Vontae never really showed a history of using drugs or anything like that.”
The last time Vernon visited his brother, he described a scene of a person taking care of himself. “I was at his house two weeks ago and he had the massage therapist there,” he recalled. “He had a stretch therapist, a chiropractor, you name it.”