Bills CB Vontae Davis Explains Decision To Retire During Week 2’s Game

Bills CB Vontae Davis explained his surprising decision to retire in the middle of Sunday’s game in an interview with Domonique Foxworth of The Undefeated.

“I went to the bench after that series and it just hit me,” Davis said. “I don’t belong on that field anymore.”

Davis said he went up to DBs coach John Butler and told him “I’m done,” and returned to his spot on the bench. Butler didn’t respond to Davis and replaced him at cornerback with Lafayette Pitts.

According to Davis, “I didn’t feel right, I didn’t feel like myself” at the start of the game.

“I didn’t expect them to understand,” Davis said of his teammates and others in the Bills organization. “That moment was shocking to me as well.

“My intention was not to hurt my teammates. In that moment, my intuition was telling me I don’t belong on that field anymore.”

Davis added that the decision to walk away from the game was “therapeutic” for him.

“And on a final note, Fox, leaving was therapeutic, bro,” Davis texted Foxworth after their conversation. “I left everything the league wanted me to be, playing for my teammates while injured, the gladiator mentality, it all just popped. And when it popped, I just wanted to leave it all behind. So that’s why I don’t care what people say. That experience was personal and not meant for anyone else to understand. It was me cold turkey leaving behind an identity that I carried with me for so long.”

Davis, 30, is a former first-round pick of the Dolphins back in 2009. He spent three years in Miami before he was traded to the Colts for the 2012 season.

Davis was in the final year of his four-year, $36 million contract that included $20 million guaranteed and set to make a base salary of $9 million for the 2017 season when the Colts cut him loose last year.

The Bills later signed him to a one-year contract worth $5 million back in February.

For his career, Davis recorded 357 tackles, 22 interceptions, 106 pass defenses, three forced fumbles, a recovery, two sacks and a defensive touchdown over the course of 10 seasons and 121 games. He was a two-time Pro Bowler.