JACKSON, Miss. (AP) - It doesn’t take long for Dr. John Davis to name the current NFL stadiums he has visited: NRG in Houston, the Superdome in New Orleans, M&T in Baltimore and Soldier Field in Chicago.
That list is about to grow.
Davis, a neurosurgeon with NewSouth NeuroSpine in Flowood and a 1988 graduate of Mississippi State, will serve as one of the NFL’s unaffiliated neurotrauma consultants for the 2017 season. His job will be to work with a team’s medical staff on the sidelines and help identify players who might have suffered a concussion and oversee evaluations.
“We will have a tablet and act as a scribe to make sure the team physician goes through the initial checklist and that no steps are unintentionally skipped,” Davis says. “Medical personnel have to be committed to doing the right thing and not be influenced by anything other than following the rules and protocol that have been set to protect the players.
“To be honest, I’m a little intimidated by it all right now. But I love football. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have agreed to do this.”
Davis, 50, isn’t sure how many games he will be assigned.
“But every time I’m called to work a game, I have to approach it as ’I’m going there to do a job.’ I don’t think the games I work will be ones I can fully enjoy. It’s not about who is winning or what player is doing well. I don’t anticipate being able to come home and tell my friends how much I enjoyed the game.”
Football always has been a huge part of Davis’ life. Though he only played through seventh grade - “the other guys hit puberty, and I didn’t,” he explains - he anxiously awaits the return of the games each fall.
“I’ve been a big Mississippi State fan, a big SEC fan,” he says. “I’ve loved the NFL games for a long time, too. Like many people in this part of the country, I grew up rooting for the New Orleans Saints and Archie Manning. Despite being raised in a family that bleeds maroon and white, everybody loved Archie.
“And since the Saints didn’t do well for a number of years, I picked a second team to pull for - the Dallas Cowboys. Now, I root for them harder than ever because (former State quarterback) Dak Prescott is with them.”
Davis’ appreciation for doctors, particularly surgeons, began around the age of 12.
“I was drawn to PBS documentaries about the medical world, and I was especially amazed by one that showed plastic surgeons performing facial reconstructions on children born with severe abnormalities,” he says. “It was remarkable to me that their great surgical skills helped these children look normal again and live normal lives. I think the impact these doctors had really impacted me.”
He was a STAR student and National Merit Semi-Finalist at Jackson Prep his senior year. The mention of such accolades makes Davis uncomfortable, so he quickly downplays it.
“I wasn’t my class valedictorian by a mile, and students at Prep make higher than 34 every year,” he says.
Davis majored in biological engineering at State, where he was president of the student body and Mr. MSU as a senior. He trained in neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.
“I’m thankful I chose engineering as my undergraduate major,” he says. “So much of engineering is how to think and logically solve problems, the how and why of things. I use that every day as a neurosurgeon.”
Most of his patients come to him with lower or upper back pain. During a typical work week, Davis is in clinic three days and performs surgery the other two. “I might do as many as five or six surgeries in one day, and then I might not do any that week,” he says.
Davis surprises a lot of parents who are hesitant about their children playing football. New data links the sport to head trauma that often doesn’t appear until later in life.
“My oldest son played through ninth grade, and he didn’t stop because I told him to,” he says. “I would have no reservation about my children playing football at the high school, college or pro level. There is no more ’shake it off and get back in there.’ Concussions are taken much more seriously now, which makes it a much safer game.”
Davis and his wife, Lesley, began dating at MSU, where she was homecoming queen in 1988. But they knew each other long before that. Both spent their early years in the tiny town of Camden, Alabama - birthplace of baseball star Hank Aaron. Lesley attended Davis’ fifth birthday party. They were reunited on a blind date.
They have three children.
Davis says it shouldn’t be hard for viewers to spot him on the sidelines during games. Medical personnel are required to wear bright red baseball caps.
He agrees it will be a special moment when he first puts on the cap with the NFL logo on the front.
“But the real moment for me will be the first time the (communication) radio crackles and there is a player we have to evaluate,” he says. “That’s when I think this whole thing will hit home.”
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