The leading tackler on a defense that led New Orleans to an opening week victory used his post-game news conference Sunday to read Scripture and testify of God's healing power during a medical scare with his four-year-old daughter.
Linebacker Demario Davis led the Saints with nine solo tackles during the Saints' 16-15 victory over the Tennessee Titans. Davis, though, didn't talk football during his five-minute meeting with the media.
"We play this game on Sundays and it's really the Lord's Day. On a day we should be worshiping the Lord, a lot of times players are getting worshiped," he said. "... Since so many of us didn't get to go to church today, I have a Word that I want to share."
Davis, a 2023 Pro Bowl selection, then read a Bible verse – Revelation 3:20 – before he began discussing his daughter's medical scare. A video of his news conference has more than 1 million views on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter.
"See, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in and dine with him and eat with him and he with Me," Davis said, reading from the Bible.
"I want to tell you all about a knock that I heard this week," Davis said.
Davis said his four-year-old daughter was playing with friends Friday when she suffered a major epilepsy seizure attack, which he described as her "worst seizure" ever. It lasted for approximately 30 minutes.
As paramedics took his daughter to the hospital, his wife boarded the ambulance, and he drove behind in his own automobile. He said he was nervous.
"I'm praying and I'm trusting and I'm believing," he said. "I'm not [just] asking for my daughter to make it through – I'm asking that she's better than before."
Once at the hospital, he learned from his wife that their daughter stopped breathing twice in the ambulance.
"You start to fear there could be development issues that could mess with her brain," he said. "So we prayed and we prayed and she had medicine and my wife and I had to stay overnight at the hospital. And in the middle of the night, probably about 3 o'clock, I heard a knock – and the knock was my daughter."
His daughter was talking.
"I prayed for her. I said, 'God, let this just be an attack from the enemy that's just trying to be a distraction and let him have overplayed his hand and my daughter come back stronger than before.'"
Incredibly, Davis said, "she was talking clearer than before." They let her talk for about 20 minutes before they encouraged her to go back to sleep. Typically, he said, it takes a few days for a person to get back to normal after a seizure.
The next morning, she woke up speaking just as clear.
Davis was amazed by her progress. Hours later, his daughter was again playing with friends.
"She [had been] playing with the kids the day before. And [then] she had the worst seizure that she had ever had. And the next day she's back out there playing with the kids."
He noted they still have to ensure she doesn't get "overstimulated."
Davis then concluded his thoughts.
"We get to play this game and it's great. And there's so many amazing things that happened in that game and everybody wants to hear about them, but when we leave this game we go back to being regular people and regular people are living life and people are waiting for a knock. … God gave me just what I asked for, plus some. I was blown away."
Davis asked the audience to consider how his story can apply to their lives.
"If you've got stuff going on in your life, lay it before the Lord, lay it before the Lord and trust – and be expecting of a knock," he said. "Because the Word says [that] what you have to do is you have to get up and open the door. He's not going to open the door for you. He's going to knock, but you have to be listening and waiting for the knock and when you see it, you have to get up and open the door. And your blessing is gonna be there."
Photo courtesy: ©Getty Images/Steph Chamber/Staff
Michael Foust has covered the intersection of faith and news for 20 years. His stories have appeared in Baptist Press, Christianity Today, The Christian Post, the Leaf-Chronicle, the Toronto Star and the Knoxville News-Sentinel.
