Just an interesting article:
Jets' Demario Davis spends nearly $1M annually on body recovery
Demario Davis was ready to quit football in 2016. He was only 27, but every joint in his body ached. By midseason, the pain was unbearable.
It was his lone year with the Cleveland Browns, where they finished 1-15 -- which only added to the anguish. Desperate for relief, he couldn't wait for the season to end.
"My body was just -- I was done, and I was ready to hang it up," he said recently.
Davis, now back with the New York Jets, who drafted him in the third round in 2012, was sitting in an office at the team's facility, having just completed an offseason practice in preparation for his 15th season. He's 37 now, with strands of gray in his thick beard, but he exudes the energy of a rookie, with one of his personal trainers saying he has the body of a 24-year-old.
He almost opted for an early retirement, but instead, he now ranks eighth on the career list for most games played at his position (227), and he will rise to fourth if he plays every game this season -- a routine accomplishment for him. Incredibly, he has missed only one game because of injury -- a pulled hamstring with the New Orleans Saints in 2024.
Davis went from "
Woe, me" to "
OG."
He attributes the turnaround to his deeply rooted spiritual beliefs and a 24/7, 365-day-a-year commitment to his body. Basically, he has two full-time jobs -- playing football and preparing and recovering from football.
Davis has a six-person team that travels to him from places like California, Arizona and Texas, performing a variety of treatments and therapies that keep his body in peak condition. We're talking about everything from old-school acupuncture to cutting-edge Tecar Therapy, which uses radiofrequency energy to reduce pain, improve range of motion and facilitate tissue regeneration.
By his estimate, he spends $500,000 to $1 million per year on body training and recovery.
"My body is my company, and the brand that comes from playing the game is my company," Davis said. "If I don't reinvest in the engine of the company and the brand of the company, I just don't think that's wise. I just try to be a good steward of what's been given."
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"He's going to be great for the Jets," Saints coach Kellen Moore said in March. "His leadership in the locker room and on the field, the example that he sets every day in practice -- obviously, he performed at a really high level last year. And so I think it's going to be great for those guys up there to have him in that locker room. I think he's going to raise the level for all."
Remember, Davis wasn't supposed to make it this far. Late in that 2016 season, that nightmarish year in Cleveland, he went into his prayer closet -- an old-shoe closet in his apartment -- and asked God for guidance. He was "ready to wave the white flag," he said, reflecting on his turning point.
After prayer, his spirit was reborn. Soon, his body was, too. Now here he is, readying for Year 15, leapfrogging all-time greats on the games-played list.
"I haven't had time to sit with it and appreciate the mind-blowingness of it," he said, inventing a word. "But I do try to tell people, 'What you're witnessing, I'm witnessing, too.' I'm shocked by it just as much as the person looking."
