The brother of former NFL cornerback Vontae Davis slipped outside of his sauna before his death on April 1, brother and former ex-NFL tight end Vernon Davis said. Vontae Davis was 35.
"This thing definitely caught me by surprise," Vernon told The Daily Mail of the former Miami Dolphins cornerback's unexpected death. "I just don't know what to make of it."
Vernon Davis went on to say he doesn't believe drugs "or anything like that" were involved.
'I'm leaning on the detectives to figure it out but right now we have no answers," he told The Daily Mail. "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."
Megan Harpe, Vontae Davis' ex-wife, told The Daily Mail that he "'had CTE ... there is definitely a story here."
Davis played for the Miami Dolphins and Indianapolis Colts before abruptly retiring in the middle of a game with the Buffalo Bills. It became the first known retirement during a game in NFL history.
"I didn't feel right, I didn't feel like myself," Davis told The Undefeated at the time. "My intention was not to hurt my teammates ... In that moment, my intuition was telling me I don't belong on that field anymore.
"The crazy thing is that people automatically assumed that something was wrong with me mentally. I feel great. I haven't felt like this in ... well, in my whole life.
"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 was found dead at his residence in South Florida. Police said a preliminary investigation revealed that there was no foul play.
