Jets’ Demario Davis spends nearly $1M annually on body recovery

FLORHAM PARK, N.J. — Demario Davis was ready to quit football in 2016. He was only 27, but every joint in his body ached. By midseason, the pain was unbearable.

It was his lone year with the Cleveland Browns, where they finished 1-15 — which only added to the anguish. Desperate for relief, he couldn’t wait for the season to end.

“My body was just — I was done, and I was ready to hang it up,” he said recently.

Davis, now back with the New York Jets, who drafted him in the third round in 2012, was sitting in an office at the team’s facility, having just completed an offseason practice in preparation for his 15th season. He’s 37 now, with strands of gray in his thick beard, but he exudes the energy of a rookie, with one of his personal trainers saying he has the body of a 24-year-old.

He almost opted for an early retirement, but instead, he now ranks eighth on the career list for most games played at his position (227), and he will rise to fourth if he plays every game this season — a routine accomplishment for him. Incredibly, he has missed only one game because of injury — a pulled hamstring with the New Orleans Saints in 2024.

Davis went from “Woe, me” to “OG.”

He attributes the turnaround to his deeply rooted spiritual beliefs and a 24/7, 365-day-a-year commitment to his body. Basically, he has two full-time jobs — playing football and preparing and recovering from football.

Davis has a six-person team that travels to him from places like California, Arizona and Texas, performing a variety of treatments and therapies that keep his body in peak condition. We’re talking about everything from old-school acupuncture to cutting-edge Tecar Therapy, which uses radiofrequency energy to reduce pain, improve range of motion and facilitate tissue regeneration.

By his estimate, he spends $500,000 to $1 million per year on body training and recovery.

“My body is my company, and the brand that comes from playing the game is my company,” Davis said. “If I don’t reinvest in the engine of the company and the brand of the company, I just don’t think that’s wise. I just try to be a good steward of what’s been given.”

DAVIS WAS WANDERING the lobby of a Buffalo-area hotel on Dec. 17, 2016, when he stumbled upon a brochure for a foot-detox treatment. He had some time to kill on the eve of a Browns-Buffalo Bills game and was dealing with plantar fasciitis, so he figured, “Why not?” He didn’t have to go far; the woman on the brochure was set up in the hotel.

“You’re not here for a foot detox,” she told Davis soon after meeting him. “You’re here for an overhaul.”

And that’s how Davis met Alexis Luczak, a doctor of naturopathic medicine and physical therapy. Their 30-minute session lasted three hours, which turned into 10 years.

Luczak and Jose Tienda are Davis’ primary providers; they work with other NFL players as well. Tienda bills himself as “Dr. J,” a concierge chiropractor who specializes in NFL performance and recovery. They work year-round with Davis, but mostly during the season. Generally, Luczak is with him Sunday morning through Tuesday; Tienda has him six days a week for about 20 hours.

It’s intense stuff, from the pregame muscle activation period to different stages of postgame recovery and injury treatment.

“I go from the field to the table, from the table to the field,” Davis said. “What I mean by that is, when I’m not training, I’m recovering. When I’m not recovering, I’m training.”

His physical therapy includes cupping (the use of suction cups to enhance blood flow) and scraping (the therapist uses tools to target stressed muscles, tendons and ligaments). He also uses dry-needle therapy, a hyperbaric chamber and red-light therapy, which uses near-infrared light to stimulate cellular activity and blood circulation.

He receives high-tech treatments such as Pulse Electromagnetic Field Therapy (PEMF), a non-invasive method that uses electromagnetic energy to help the body heal faster.

And let’s not forget about FST (Fascia Stretching Therapy) and ART (Active Release Techniques), both designed to improve mobility, reduce chronic pain and enhance athletic performance.

“A lot of soft-tissue work,” Davis said. “And it’s around the clock.”

It sounds like alphabet soup, but it’s keeping Davis on the field longer than he ever envisioned. He was able to resolve the systematic inflammation that nearly drove him away a decade ago. Other NFL stars, notably Derrick Henry and CeeDee Lamb, are known to invest heavily on cutting-edge recovery methods, but Davis is unique because he’s been doing it for so long.

“We’ve been able to really reverse the aging process, and that is so special because when your age is close to 40, people think that you shouldn’t be playing football any longer and you can’t compete as well,” Luczak said. “But the reality is he feels like a kid.”

Davis also uses hot and cold tubs, saunas and Epsom-salt baths. He’s a big believer in water therapy. A few years ago, he did aquatic workouts for three hours per day, which improved his breathing and helped reduce fatigue.

Each year, his providers create a new scientific program, basing it on his latest lab results and adding wrinkles to keep him in tip-top shape. A new toy this season: He expects to have access to an Ammortal chamber bed, a $160,000 wellness contraption in which users are enveloped in a cocoon of healing light, sound and vibration.

Of course, diet and nutrition are keys to his health playbook. He watches what he eats, not always easy for a self-described country boy from Mississippi. He has a soft spot for comfort food but learned to appreciate the importance of diet and nutrition, noting that certain foods can limit inflammation.

Sorry, no avocado ice cream, a la Tom Brady. Davis adheres to a “caveman-style diet,” according to Luczak. Davis, who has a personal chef, is aggressive with proteins (red meat) but avoids dairy. He also believes in intermittent fasting, along with a 24-hour fast once a week.

Davis said his wife, Tamela, is a fantastic cook, prompting a confession: Yes, he cheats on his diet.

“It’s been working to this point,” he said with a smile, “so I keep doing it.”

IN A WAY, Davis is defying the odds in dramatic fashion. He plays one of the most physical positions on the field — middle linebacker — and has managed to last 14 seasons without a major injury. He has “cracked the code of longevity,” according to Luczak, who believes the benefits will last through his post-football life.

Football has evolved in recent years. It’s more spatial than it used to be, with less banging in the trenches. This, Davis acknowledged, has helped prolong his career. Load management would help, too, except that’s not part of his vocabulary. He almost never leaves the field.

He has logged at least 1,000 defensive snaps in each of the last four seasons, and last season he became the oldest linebacker to start every team game since London Fletcher (38) in 2013, according to ESPN Research.

“The middle linebacker needs flexibility because they’re coming at you from all angles,” said ESPN analyst Mike Tannenbaum, the Jets’ general manager when Davis was drafted. “Flexibility is very underrated, and Demario has that, not to mention great endurance.”

Players and coaches are blown away by Davis and his staying power. Jets coach Aaron Glenn called it “God-given,” though he can appreciate the amount of work that goes into it. Glenn should know; he played in the NFL until he was 36. Defensive tackle Harrison Phillips, 30, said he’d feel guilty complaining about routine fatigue and soreness because of the way Davis — the oldest player on the team — attacks each day.

Davis likes to use a car-racing analogy to describe his durability. As soon as he pulls off the track, he said, his pit crew works on his engine. There’s a lot of mileage on that engine — nearly 13,000 defensive snaps — but the fuel efficiency remains high.

He’s coming off an eight-year run in New Orleans, where he made two Pro Bowls and earned one first-team All-Pro selection. He was a household name in the Big Easy, a heart-and-soul player who delivered fire, brimstone and leadership.

The Jets, in need of all three after a 3-14 season, pounced on Davis in free agency, luring him to New York with a two-year, $22 million contract, including $15 million guaranteed. This is his third stint with the Jets. He said in an interview last year that he’d like to play through the 2027 season, which ends two days before his 39th birthday (Jan. 11, 2028).

“He’s going to be great for the Jets,” Saints coach Kellen Moore said in March. “His leadership in the locker room and on the field, the example that he sets every day in practice — obviously, he performed at a really high level last year. And so I think it’s going to be great for those guys up there to have him in that locker room. I think he’s going to raise the level for all.”

Remember, Davis wasn’t supposed to make it this far. Late in that 2016 season, that nightmarish year in Cleveland, he went into his prayer closet — an old-shoe closet in his apartment — and asked God for guidance. He was “ready to wave the white flag,” he said, reflecting on his turning point.

After prayer, his spirit was reborn. Soon, his body was, too. Now here he is, readying for Year 15, leapfrogging all-time greats on the games-played list.

“I haven’t had time to sit with it and appreciate the mind-blowingness of it,” he said, inventing a word. “But I do try to tell people, ‘What you’re witnessing, I’m witnessing, too.’ I’m shocked by it just as much as the person looking.”