Mike Davis

Michael Leonard Davis (April 15, 1956 – April 25, 2021) was an American professional football player who was a safety in the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the Colorado Buffaloes.

College career Davis played college football at the University of Colorado, where was part of a team that won the 1976 Big 8 Championship. He was a 1976 NEA All American.

Professional career Davis played for the National Football League's Oakland Raiders between 1978 and 1985 and the San Diego Chargers for part of 1987. He was a starter on the Raiders Super Bowl XV and Super Bowl XVIII winning teams.

Drafted 35th overall in the second round of the 1977 draft, Davis started playing as the Raiders' third safety. Davis became the starting strong safety in 1979. Upon the snap of the bill, Davis read a pass play and slipped initially. Davis recovered his footing and found his coverage assignment, Ozzie Newsome, whom teammate Burgess Owen had been covering.

Davis' superb play was often overlooked by fans and reporters because he rarely made interceptions (partly because the Raiders didn't often need him to help their star cornerbacks, partly because he wasn't a good pass-catcher and dropped a number of potential picks during his career) and because advanced statistics that would have shown what a truly great safety he was did not exist when he played. Davis said the Raiders defensive philosophy didn't lend itself to strong safeties intercepting a lot of passes but claimed he was a Pro Bowl caliber player. Davis was the Raiders union representative beginning in his second season.

Personal life Davis had two sons and a wife, Mary.

Davis lost all hearing in his left ear and then lost all the remaining hearing in his right ear. Davis attributed the hearing loss to some of the hits he inflicted and some he sustained. Davis said that San Diego running back Gary Anderson "was lunging into the impact of tacklers and his knee hit me on the right side of the head; it was the hardest I had ever been hit and it made me physically sick." Davis added Television doesn't do it justice. You don't see double vision, or even blurred vision. It's multiple vision. When it first happens, it's like going from a sunlit room into the midnight hour, man. That happened to me three times in my career. Coming out of it is like watching the heat rising off the street, and people look like they're waving in the wind, like in ‘The Matrix.’ There was ringing in my ears. Davis received permanent disability monthly payments because of his hearing loss and lower back pain but said he lived comfortably because of a $8.5 million guaranteed contract with the Raiders and investments.

Davis died at age 65 on April 25, 2021.