Catching Up with Former Player Rep: Don Davis
Don Davis is a former NFL linebacker who played 11 years in the NFL. He attended college at the University of Kansas, where he was a three‑year starter for the Jayhawks. Following his playing career, the 2-time Super Bowl Champion continued to serve the game in a different capacity, briefly serving as an Assistant Strength & Conditioning Coach and Chaplain. He is currently the Chief Player Officer at the NFLPA. We caught up with Don to reflect on his journey through football and leadership, and how his experiences as a player helped shape his purpose after the game.
What inspired you to become a Player Rep?
One of my captains on the team said you need to come with me and get involved. It was peer-to-peer. Even though I was involved in things like student council in school, I never thought about the union like that. As a player you’re so focused on playing, winning, making the team, and you don’t give a lot of thought to the whole ecosystem that serves you. And the NFLPA wasn’t as prominent back then, so my teammate coming to me saying I needed to lead put it on my radar.
How did being a Player Rep impact you both personally and professionally?
Being a Player Rep impacted me personally by helping me to understand my rights and my benefits, and the role that I had as a player to steer and create the future that I wanted. Professionally, having another title of leadership gives you confidence and shows a level of competence and respect you’re able to garner amongst your peers.
What is one piece of advice you wish had got when you had started your NFL career?
I think I had the advice but didn’t listen to it. I would advise myself to gain quicker confidence and discipline to say no. Specifically to family and friends and other situations. To focus only on what mattered knowing that the time was going to be short. I think maybe you get caught up a little bit in other social activities and relationships.
What is one piece of advice you have for players who are transitioning out of the league?
It’s going to be difficult on three (3) levels: cognitively, socially, and behaviorally. My advice is as you transition, give yourself some grace and have a spirit of exploration. Explore as quickly as you can as many different diverse sectors that you might like, so then you can discover some things that you do like and don’t like. Then, start the road to mastery on a set of skills and things. It will accelerate your transition. The hardest level of transition is emotion. Behaviorally, you have discipline. We don’t deal with emotions. There's some players I’ve heard in my own doctoral work that have said "I didn’t know I was allowed to have feelings". We aren’t aware of our emotions, and our language around emotion is limited.
Why do you think more players should be involved and be active with the Players Association?
Players should be more active and involved because they are the association. You hear players say the PA is weak or the PA needs to do that. They are the PA. We here at the organizational level, are here simply as a conduit of them. We cannot move any further than our players are willing to go. And as a player rep it was hard because the value and branding proposition wasn’t strong enough. We also didn’t have the same resources back then that we wanted to protect players with.
What are you doing now in your career? And what is your favorite part of your job and why?
I am doing a lot of the same things that I have been doing: advocating for players, trying to advance their rights, and educating them so they can make decisions that can improve their lives. Everything in my day-to-day is centered around how we can help players and how we can make the whole institution better. My favorite part about my job is anytime I get to interact with the membership, past, present, or future. It gives me life. Player engagement and education are easily the best part of my work.
What is the biggest lesson you took away from your career in the NFL and time as a Player Rep? And how do you apply it to your current career?
You can have everything but not anything, and without action there won’t be advancement. What I mean is I can want a lot of things, but if I’m not willing to do anything, very few of my wants are going to get activated. These are the lessons I have learned, am learning, and am trying to expose players to today because the union can only be as strong as its members. I think it’s a human trait to want things and not be willing to work.
What does the NFLPA Fraternity mean to you?
It means brotherhood, security, connection, commitment. I think that it's an elite group. 30,000 people have played the game at this level in 120 years and that’s incredible. The league has elite turnover. It’s hard to get in and even harder to stay in. It represents the best of the best. There are some who feel they don’t have the most ideal experience as a player, but the challenge is we have collective prosperity. When we are negotiating, we negotiate for the whole, and for prosperity for the whole. When you do it that way, you look at all the 30,000 plus former players, then you have class vs equity. In order to have collective prosperity, it sometimes comes at the expense of certain classes and that’s what we have to balance.