Demario Davis knows football. He knows the game. He knows how to play the game at an elite level. He knows about those who have come before him. He knows about those who will come after him.
He's 37 years old, but what is that in football linebacker years? He's played his game for 14 seasons, and No. 15 is just around the corner, in his third stint as a Jet.
Davis obviously knows longevity.
"The way I try to show up is, No. 1, being an elite player at my position. That is very important to me," he told nyjets.com senior reporter Eric Allen in a 1-on-1 interview. "I believe people follow what they see, not what they hear. Even at 37, as long as I'm playing this game, I'm going to play it at a high level. That's what I'm trying to do. And so it starts with my individual play."
Yet why does Davis do it, how does he do it? What can he tell us about how he continues to thrive in this fierce, fast game made for the young that he's also made his own?
Part of it, the start of it, was his early-career focus on the greats who went before him.
"I think I respect the game," he said. "You've got to respect the game and it'll respect you back. I used to study all the linebackers. Dick Butkus, Mike Singletary, Ray Lewis, Brian Urlacher, Jack Lambert, Patrick Willis. I mean, I could go all day with these guys.
"And when you look at how they played the game, it was violent and ferocious. It was about enforcing your will upon the opponent. And that's how I look at it. When I put my helmet on and I'm inside those white lines, there's only one way you can play this game and it's a thousand miles an hour."
'This Is My Purpose, My Assignment'
That's only a prologue to how and why the player sometimes called the "Terminator" has been able to play 227 games (plus five more in the playoffs), missing only two games in his first 14 seasons ... average more than 1,000 snaps a season ... amass more than 100 tackles a year.
"I don't think it's 'why' I'm doing it to a high level. I think it's just a lot more of the 'how,' " he said. "For me, last year was a career high in tackles, and the year before that was a career high in tackles as well. My mindset is: How can I sprint through the finish line?"
Having studied the legends, Davis next step is turning to the greatness in his life. He has a deep spirituality that has sustained him over the years.
"I'm here doing exactly what I'm supposed to be doing," he explained. "This is my purpose, this is my assignment. When you step into your purpose and your assignment, that comes with a lot of grace."
But grace is merely the start. Davis talks about the group of people he has involved in his corporation, keeping the engine operating at peak efficiency.
"I have a team that takes care of me religiously," he said, likening his 6-2, 248-pound frame to a racecar that comes off the track and goes right into the garage to be worked on for the next race. "Around the clock, they are constantly tinkering on my body to make sure its primed and ready to go."
And in large part that's because the game has changed. Davis is something of a bridge linebacker between the "gritty" old days he's studied and the "more high-tech, in-space" game of today and tomorrow.
"There's a lot more science, a lot more information," he said. "So trainers know how take care of players better, coaches know how to take care of player's better. It's not just a grind-you-down practice, a grind-you-down season. They know how to get high performance but also take care of the body."
Preaching Balance to Extend Careers
Besides a mixture of down in the mud vs. up in the stars, another duality speaks to him that enables him to temper his intensity off the field, where he does great works through his and his wife Tamela's Devoted Dreamers Foundation, to the locker room, where he shares his words and wisdom with younger players, to the field.
"The intensity is how I show up in my workouts, how I show up in practice, how I show up in the game," he said. "And it's not even a switch for me, it's a part of my character, that's who I am. I like to think of it very similar to the person I try to model my life after, which is Jesus, the lion and the lamb. Off the field, I'm just trying to serve people and it could seem very lambish. When you step up inside those lines, you see a different mode, and that's the lion. I think that's the blend."
However, the blend, whatever it takes, it takes a special man to do what Davis is doing. Of the six linebackers he mentioned above, all Pro Football Hall of Famers, their careers averaged just 11.7 seasons and 161 games. The only one who has matched Davis' longevity is the Ravens' Lewis, who played 17 seasons and 228 regular-season games before calling it a career after the 2012 season.
Davis is 10th all-time among NFL linebackers with his 227 games. Two games as a Jet and he'll move past Lewis into ninth. He is one of only three 'backers in the top-10 to have started his career in the new millennium, and he has started his career most recently, in 2012.
""I think that balance of performance and recovery extends careers." he said, passing on some more vital information to the younger players who want it. "I think anyone who desires to show up in that way, this won't be a phenomenon, it will be the norm. And I'm just one of the first ones doing it."
Preaching Balance to Extend Careers
Besides a mix of down in the mud vs. up in the stars, another duality speaks to him that enables him to temper his intensity off the field, where he does great works through his and his wife Tamela's Devoted Dreamers Foundation, to the locker room, where he shares his words and wisdom with younger players, to the field.
"The intensity is how I show up in my workouts, how I show up in practice, how I show up in the game," he said. "And it's not even a switch for me, it's a part of my character, that's who I am. I like to think of it very similar to the person I try to model my life after, which is Jesus, the lion and the lamb. Off the field, I'm just trying to serve people and it could seem very lambish. When you step up inside those lines, you see a different mode, and that's the lion. I think that's the blend."
Whatever, the blend, whatever it takes, it takes a special man to do what Davis is doing. Of the six linebackers he mentioned above, all Pro Football Hall of Famers, their careers averaged just 11.7 seasons and 161 games. The only one who has matched Davis' longevity is the Ravens' Lewis, who played 17 seasons and 228 regular-season games before calling it a career after the 2012 season.
Davis is 10th among linebackers in NFL history with his 227 games. Two games as a Jet and he'll move past Lewis into ninth. He is one of only three 'backers in the top 10 to have started his career in the new millennium, and he has started his career most recently, in 2012.
"I think that balance of performance and recovery extends careers." he said, passing on some more vital information to the younger players who want it. "I think anyone who desires to show up in that way, this won't be a phenomenon, it will be the norm. And I'm just one of the first ones doing it."
