Vontae Davis’s body was discovered Monday morning when a housekeeper arrived for work and spotted the former cornerback slumped motionless on the floor of his gym.
Detectives have opened an ongoing investigation into the 35-year-old’s unexplained death but their initial findings don’t point towards foul play.
Vernon, 40, told DailyMail.com in an exclusive interview that his brother appeared to have collapsed or slipped moments after he stepped out of a sauna.
There was no evidence of a break in and nothing was disturbed at the $4million mansion in Southwest Ranches, a swish South Florida enclave where Gisele Bundchen, Dwayne Johnson and fellow football star Tyreek Hill have homes.
‘This thing definitely caught me by surprise. I just don’t know what to make of it,’ said Vernon, almost lost for words as he paid a heart-wrenching tribute to Vontae.
He added: ‘I’m leaning on the detectives to figure it out but right now we have no answers. They are going to run tests and they said they’ll get back to us.
‘It could be as long as a month, a month and a half, until we know anything.’
The two brothers both enjoyed successful NFL careers, 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 removing himself from a game at halftime and declaring that he was ‘done.’
Explaining his abrupt retirement, he told reporters 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 he was worried 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 was suffering from the condition. ‘Yes he had CTE … there is 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 killer Aaron Hernandez.
Vernon said his brother was diagnosed with attention-deficit disorder while growing up but appeared to be in good health and had never mentioned anything about a brain injury.
‘Maybe that’s the case, maybe it’s not. We don’t really have an answer to that because there is no way to see into our brain while we live,’ he said.
‘Vontae never really showed a history of using drugs or anything like that.
‘I was at his house two weeks ago and he had the massage therapist there. He had a stretch therapist, a chiropractor, you name it.’
Vontae had spent much of the past year embroiled in legal troubles including a divorce and a $1 million lawsuit stemming from a horrifying February 2023 DUI crash in which he slammed his Tesla into a stationary truck then fell asleep on the roadside.
However, the former athlete had also embarked on a string of new projects, including a luxury chauffeur business and a TV documentary charting how he and Vernon overcame their poverty-stricken childhood to become gridiron heroes.
The pair and their four siblings were raised in a tough Washington, D.C neighborhood by their grandmother Adaline, 81.
A third brother, Michael Davis, was committed to a mental facility for bludgeoning a stranger to death with a sledgehammer in 2012.
‘My mother was addicted to drugs, my father an alcoholic. I grew up in some very traumatic situations. I witnessed my father being shot multiple times by his brother,’ Vontae recalled in a 2018 interview.
Vontae excelled in track and field at high school and was rookie of the year for the football team at Illinois.
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 went into acting after retiring from the NFL and is a judge on the FOX show Domino Masters.
‘We were four years apart but I remember waking him up to do workouts 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 myself to succeed.
‘I’m proud of him for his great work ethic, for his ability, his discipline. For understanding the difference between being good and great at something and for putting in the work.
‘We were the difference makers in our family. We came from a tough background but we had goals and aspirations to be better than the space we came out of.
‘I could not have picked a better little brother.’
Vontae’s post-football life as a businessman and CEO of wellness business didn’t all go to plan, however.
He made headlines in February last year when cops found him curled up asleep on the side of a Florida highway after crashing his Tesla.
Vontae was coming home from a club when he swerved across several lanes and slammed into a Toyota truck that was parked on the shoulder.
Jerome Curry Jr, who had pulled over to change a tire, suffered ‘multiple injuries’ as the truck bounced into him.
Vontae dozed off beside the wreckage and struggled to stay awake even after cops placed him in the back of a patrol car, according to an arrest warrant.
When officers asked if he had consumed any alcohol, he replied: ‘Yes, I had two drinks. Two mixed drinks.’
The ex-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’ probation and 50 hours community service.
Curry Jr and his father, Jerome Curry Sr, who was with his son when the smash happened but managed to leap clear of the collision, sued Vontae two months later for $1 million in damages.
The case was unresolved when Vontae died, as was a second suit in which he was sued for $79,000 for failing to pay for a pricey piece of anti-aging medical kit known as a Morpheus8.
Greenwoods Equipment Finance claimed in a November 2023 complaint that Vzone, a wellness business associated with Vontae, failed to make monthly payments on the microneedling device used for so-called ‘no-cut facelifts.’
Vontae also filed for divorce in January last year, stating that his eight-year marriage to Harpe, a 34-year-old lawyer, was ‘irretrievably broken.’
Court documents reveal she was guaranteed a $750,000 lump sum in the couple’s prenup.
Vontae also paid $1.26million to buy out her share of their five-bed Southwest Ranches home, the same property in which he was found dead.
‘Officers were called to the residence by the house assistant, who found the homeowner deceased,’ the Davie Police Department said.
‘Preliminary information suggests that foul play is not involved. The investigation remains active.’
