Unsurprisingly, Panthers quarterback Cam Newton is on the cover of the annual Lindy’s Sports NFL preview that hit store shelves across the Carolinas this month.
Inside, you can find a piece I was asked to contribute about linebacker Thomas Davis.
Lindy’s wanted to highlight the reigning NFL Man of the Year in its “Keeping the Faith” national feature, with a focus on all he’s overcome to return to the field. His story of becoming the first known NFL player to come back after three reconstructive knee surgeries is certainly not new to Panthers fans, and while he’s proud of what he did, Davis is a bit tired of answering the same questions time and again.
So hopefully the story below, revealing a previously little-known meeting held before his third comeback, reveals a new angle. Yes, Davis had faith in himself, but he also needed three others inside the building to have complete faith in him.
Keeping the Faith: Davis Felt it from the Panthers
Take 328 tackles away from Thomas Davis’ career totals. Erase his influence on the first Panthers teams to earn consecutive playoff appearances. Give the 2014 Walter Payton Man of the Year Award to someone else.
Many are familiar with Davis’ inspiring comeback. Few are aware it wouldn’t have happened if any of the men who gathered at Bank of America Stadium in late September 2011 had doubted Davis. Instead, their faith changed the recent fate of the franchise.
A few days before Davis met with then-general manager Marty Hurney and head coach Ron Rivera in owner Jerry Richardson’s office, the linebacker had limped off the field below. He had torn the ACL in his right knee for the third time in less than two years.
Davis and his wife, Kelly, then researched, but they couldn’t find a single instance of an NFL player who returned after undergoing three ACL surgeries on the same knee. So he wanted a shot at becoming the first. But as Davis walked into the meeting, he was more realistic than hopeful.
“My mindset was ‘it’s over’ because it had never happened. No guy has ever gotten the opportunity. Not that they weren’t able to come back, it’s just having that opportunity. In this league, that does not happen,” Davis recalled.
“If they would have been like, ‘You put everything you had into coming back, we respect that and we appreciate it, but we have to go in a different direction,’ I would not have been upset one bit. I couldn’t have been. They stuck by me through all those injuries. They drafted me and gave me this opportunity to play this game.”
After racking up 113 tackles in 2008, Davis was playing at a Pro Bowl level when he tore his ACL for the first time a year later. As he sat in Richardson’s office, that once-promising career appeared over. Until the men started going around the room.
Rivera, off to an 0-2 start in his first season, had known Davis for only a few months. It was long enough to recognize he was worth keeping around.
“Without hesitation coach Rivera said, ‘Yes, I want him back. If he can make it back, I want him back,'” Davis remembered.
Hurney, who used a first-round pick on Davis in 2005 and then navigated ways to keep him under contract despite his injuries, also pledged his support.
“He was going to have to take himself out of our mix because he had proven that he had it all. I’m not talking physically. I’m talking about the drive, the personality, the effect he had on teammates, how much he cared about the team and organization,” Hurney said. “He had everything, and he deserved that third chance to come back and find out whether he could do it or not.”
And then, when it was Richardson’s turn to speak, the decision became unanimous.
“To hear the owner say, ‘I’m willing to give you the opportunity if you’re willing to put yourself through it. I believe in you,'” Davis said, pausing to gather his emotions. “When the owner of the team says, ‘I believe in you,’ that was the only motivation I needed.
“I heard so many people telling me that I should retire. People saying, ‘You want to be able to play with your kids someday.’ But even bigger than all that, I heard this voice saying, ‘I believe in you.'”
That belief stemmed from more than Davis’ potential as a football player. After arriving in Charlotte as a typically immature 22 year old, he had grown into a family man deeply involved in the community. Davis’ story didn’t end because he deserved to keep writing it.
“When you have the injury factor, and you have a guy with a questionable past, then what’s your reason for wanting to hold on?” he asked rhetorically. “But if you have a guy that’s going to do things the right way, never been in trouble, I know that had a big part in them being willing to give me the opportunity. And I’m still grateful to this day that they saw enough in me to allow me to continue my career.”
From 2009-11, Davis played just nine games. In the three seasons since his third comeback, he’s appeared in 46 of 48 games while totaling at least 100 tackles each year.
In January, as he accepted his Man of the Year Award, he made an emotional plea to his peers. “Let’s take charge. Dare to be different,” he said. “Let’s give the media something positive to talk about instead of always bashing our league.”
The Panthers believed in Davis when few teams may have done the same in a cruel business. But few men would have rewarded that faith as richly as Davis has.
“I think Thomas Davis is rare, and I think anybody that would spend time with him and know what his makeup is would feel the same. You just don’t cross the guy out,” Hurney said.
“But gosh, I don’t think anybody could have predicted this. It’s such a great story. It’s one of those feel-good stories.”