Super Bowl winner Vernon Davis has broken his silence on the mysterious death of his NFL player brother Vontae, telling DailyMail.com: “I couldn’t have asked for a better little brother.”
Vontae Davis’ body was discovered Monday morning when a housekeeper came to work and saw the former cornerback slumped motionless on the floor of his gym.
Detectives have opened an ongoing investigation into the 35-year-old man’s unexplained death, but their initial findings do not point to foul play.
Vernon, 40, told DailyMail.com in an exclusive interview that his brother appeared to have collapsed or slipped moments after leaving a sauna.
Super Bowl winner Vernon Davis has spoken out about his brother’s death. He tells DailyMail.com: “Vontae never showed a history of drug use or anything like that.”
A heartbroken Vernon Davis told DailyMail.com: “I couldn’t have picked a better little brother.”
Davis, 35, died Monday at his home in Southwest Ranches, Florida, and was found slumped motionless on the floor of his home gym.
There was no evidence of a break-in and nothing was altered at the $4 million mansion in Southwest Ranches, an elegant South Florida enclave where Gisele Bundchen, Dwayne Johnson and fellow soccer star Tyreek Hill have homes.
‘This definitely took me by surprise. I just don’t know what to do with this,” Vernon said, almost speechless as he paid a heartbreaking tribute to Vontae.
The couple and their four siblings were raised in a tough neighborhood of Washington, DC by their grandmother.
He added: “I’m leaning on the detectives to figure it out, but right now we don’t have answers.” They are going to run tests and said they will contact us.
“It could be up to a month, a month and a half, until we know something.”
Both brothers enjoyed successful careers in the NFL, with Vontae suiting up for the Dolphins, Colts and Bills and Vernon winning Super Bowl 50 with the Broncos.
Former first-round pick Vontae played for 10 seasons, but shocked the sport in 2018 by leaving a game at halftime and declaring he was “done.”
Explaining his abrupt retirement, he told reporters that his body had been worn down by multiple injuries and surgeries, adding: “Reality hit me fast and hard: I shouldn’t be out there anymore.”
Vontae also revealed that he was concerned about the risks of chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a devastating brain injury caused by repeated blows to the head.
His ex-wife Megan Harpe suggested in a text message to DailyMail.com this week that he suffered from the condition. “Yes, he had CTE…there’s definitely a story here,” she said, without elaborating.
Reported symptoms of CTE include memory loss, depression, paranoia, and suicidal thoughts. A recent study identified the disease in more than 300 deceased NFL players, including Patriots tight end-turned-murderer Aaron Hernandez.
Vernon said his brother was diagnosed with attention deficit disorder growing up, but seemed to be in good health and had never mentioned anything about a brain injury.
‘Maybe that’s the case, maybe not. “We don’t really have an answer to that because there’s no way to see inside our brains while we’re living,” he said.
‘Vontae never really showed a history of drug use or anything like that.
‘I was at his house two weeks ago and he had the masseuse there. He had a stretch therapist, a chiropractor, you name it.
Davis’ ex-wife, Megan Harpe, suggested he suffered from CTE. “Yes, she had CTE…there’s definitely a story here,” she said, without elaborating.
Davis played for the Miami Dolphins, Indianapolis Colts and Buffalo Bills during his NFL career.
Cars were seen arriving at the property on Monday following his tragic death.
Vontae had spent much of last year embroiled in legal trouble, including a divorce and a million-dollar lawsuit stemming from a horrific DUI crash in February 2023, in which he crashed his Tesla into a stopped truck and then came to rest. asleep on the side of the road.
However, the former athlete had also embarked on a number of new projects, including a luxury chauffeur business and a television documentary showing how he and Vernon overcame their poverty-stricken childhood to become farm heroes.
The couple and their four siblings were raised in a tough neighborhood of Washington, DC by their 81-year-old grandmother Adaline.
A third brother, Michael Davis, was committed to a psychiatric facility for beating a stranger to death with a sledgehammer in 2012.
‘My mother was a drug addict, my father an alcoholic. I grew up in very traumatic situations. I witnessed her brother shoot my father multiple times,” Vontae recalled in a 2018 interview.
Vontae was a track standout in high school and was the rookie of the year on the Illinois football team.
Selected 25th overall in the 2009 draft by Miami, he played 121 times in the NFL, earning Pro Bowl honors in 2014 and 2015.
“He was like my son,” recalled Vernon, who turned to acting after retiring from the NFL and is a judge on FOX’s Domino Masters.
‘We were four years apart, but I remember waking him up to exercise 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 me to succeed.
‘I am proud of him for his great work ethic, his ability, his discipline. By understanding the difference between being good and excellent at something and by trying hard.
‘We were the ones who made the difference in our family. We came from a difficult background, but we had goals and aspirations to be better than the place we came from.
“I couldn’t have picked a better little brother.”
‘We were four years apart, but I remember waking him up to exercise 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 me to succeed,” Vernon said of his brother.
Vernon said he is “leaning on the detectives” to discover the cause of his brother’s death. “They’re going to do testing and they said they’ll get back to us,” she said.
However, Vontae’s life after football as an entrepreneur and CEO of a wellness company did not go as planned.
He made headlines in February last year when police found him curled up asleep on the side of a Florida highway after crashing his Tesla.
Vontae was returning home from a club when he swerved across several lanes and crashed into a Toyota pickup truck that was parked on the shoulder.
Jerome Curry Jr, who had stopped to change a tire, suffered “multiple injuries” when the truck collided with him.
Vontae fell asleep next to the debris and struggled to stay awake even after officers placed him in the back of a patrol car, according to an arrest warrant.
When officers asked him if he had consumed alcohol, he responded, “Yes, I had two drinks.” Two mixed drinks.
The former athlete faced six charges, including DUI, but avoided jail time by pleading no contest to a lesser charge of reckless driving and was sentenced to 12 months of probation and 50 hours of community service.
Curry Jr and his father, Jerome Curry Sr, who was with his son when the accident occurred but managed to escape the collision, sued Vontae two months later for $1 million in damages.
The case went unresolved when Vontae died, as did a second lawsuit in which he was sued for $79,000 for failing to pay for an expensive anti-aging medical kit known as Morfeo8.
In February 2023, Davis was found asleep on the side of the road after crashing his Tesla on a Florida highway.
Vontae fell asleep next to the debris and struggled to stay awake even after officers placed him in the back of a patrol car, according to an arrest warrant.
Greenwoods Equipment Finance claimed in a November 2023 complaint that Vzone, a wellness company associated with Vontae, failed to make monthly payments for the microneedling device used for so-called “no-cut facelifts.”
Vontae also filed for divorce in January last year, saying her eight-year marriage to Harpe, a 34-year-old lawyer, was “irretrievably broken.”
Court documents reveal that she was guaranteed a lump sum of $750,000 in the couple’s prenuptial agreement.
Vontae also paid $1.26 million to buy out his share of his five-bedroom home in Southwest Ranches, the same property where he was found dead.
“The house attendant called officers to the residence and found the homeowner deceased,” the Davie Police Department said.
‘Preliminary information suggests that no foul play is involved. The investigation remains active.’