VERNON DAVIS
Who’s got it better than Vernon Davis? Nobody! The 2013-2014 season outlook for this San Francisco Forty-Niner team leader looks extremely promising. Following an excellent 2012-2013 regular season, the Niners are looking make another deep run to the postseason, where Vernon Davis has historically performed. During the 2011-2012 playoffs Davis set a Tight End NFL record of 180 yards in a single game, and is second only to Jerry Rice’s team record for yardage in a playoff game. Davis made a “forever” sports highlight in the last minute and a half of gameplay with two, clutch receptions against the New Orleans Saints during their contest. His game-winning plays rivaled the best efforts of past 49ers team legends resulting in a named play: “The Grab” (The Catch III). A week later he was the most potent, offensive 49ers weapon against the New York Giants who narrowly bested them to advance to, and win the Superbowl.
Picked 6th overall in the 2006 NFL Draft from the University of Maryland to the 49ers, Davis has directed the trajectory of his career steadily upward: twice appointed team captain, received the Len Eshmont Award as the club’s most inspirational player, and selected as an NFC starter in the 2010 Pro Bowls In the same year, Davis tied the tight end season record for 13 touchdowns in a single season – since, bested by only one other player. He finished the season with career highs of 78 catches for 965 yards and 13 TDs, in the process, redefining the tight end position’s potential.
In the off season, Vernon Davis fills his time with a mix of personal, career and philanthropic activities. Most recently, he partnered with the mobile payment startup company Gopago (pronounced: Go-Pay-Go) to help launch their brand in the San Francisco area. He is featured in an E:60 segment (the ESPN TV magazine) painting a self portrait and discussing the 2011-2012 season. In 2010, he represented the NFL by traveling to Afghanistan to spend time with U.S. troops by invitation from the United Service Organizations (USO) and has served as the U.S. Olympics Honorary Curling Captain at the 2010 and 2014 Winter Games in Vancouver, Canada.
From his days as an Art Studio major at University of Maryland, Vernon Davis has maintained his connection to the fine arts as an avid painter and collector. He traveled to the Louvre in Paris in 2011 and has plans to fulfill a lifelong dream of traveling to Rome to see one of his favorite painters, Michelangelo’s Sistine chapel at the Vatican…that, and adding an original Claude Clarke, his other favorite painter, to his collection.
To encourage the participation of young artists in a manner that wasn’t available to him as a poor kid from DC, he funded the Vernon Davis Visual Arts Scholarship. Established in Spring of 2010, the annual award goes to a deserving, college-bound high school art student in the San Francisco Unified School District. The Scholarship fund will be expanding to Washington DC in 2013.
In the past, his philanthropic endeavors have included hosting the Sound Mind Sound Body football academy which mentors hundreds of young high school students aspiring to college athletic careers; benefits the Starkey Hearing Foundation which provides the gift of hearing around the globe; supports Pros for Africa which takes NFL players on annual relief missions to the continent. Vernon Davis also appeared in the Until There’s A Cure HIV/AIDS awareness campaign.
Playmaker. Game-changer. Philanthropist. Leader. San Francisco 49ers tight end Vernon Davis confidently wears the mantle of the Champion Sports Hero on and off the field.