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FOUR DOWNS are all you usually get in football. If you can't make sufficient progress in four shots, you have to give up the ball.
Since leaving Brooke Point High School as a can't-miss prospect in 1999, Daniel Davis has made three college stops. At each, he has been tripped up more often off the field than on it.
Now, the NFL's Indianapolis Colts have given Davis another shot at football's highest level--even though he's done little in college to deserve it.
It's fourth down.
Davis' long and winding road "has made me appreciate everything a lot more," he said this week. "It showed me I had an opportunity most people don't get, and I [threw] it away by not doing everything I was supposed to. If I had, I could have been in the NFL by now."
Instead, Davis is a 24-year-old free agent who'll attend the Colts' minicamp today, hoping to impress coach Tony Dungy and earn an invitation to training camp later this summer.
It speaks volumes about Davis' awesome athletic ability that any team would even consider a running back who's carried just 37 times in the past three years--let alone one who's run into recurring legal and academic trouble.
"He's always shown an ability to be a tremendous football player," said Michael Smith, Kansas State's running-backs coach. "But he's run into off-field issues. He's had to show he can handle his business, and by doing that, he's gotten a second chance again."
Or fourth.
Amid great fanfare, Davis signed with North Carolina in February 1999. He lasted one season in Chapel Hill, kicked off a mediocre team by a coach (Carl Torbush) who later got fired. Poor grades and charges of credit card fraud and underage possession of alcohol overshadowed Davis' performance. He even spent weekends in jail because he didn't show up for hearings after being stopped for driving on a suspended license.
He landed at Garden State (Kan.) Community College and led the Broncbusters to the 2000 junior-college national championship game. But he failed to complete his degree and had to sit out the 2001 season before transferring to Kansas State.
He played as a backup in 2002. But last summer, Davis was charged with two counts of theft. Then his college career ended when his grade from a summer-school course wasn't turned in on time, making him ineligible under Big 12 Conference rules.
Still, the Colts outbid the New York Giants, Cleveland Browns and Kansas City Chiefs to get Davis into camp. They need a backup to Pro Bowler Edgerrin James, and Davis is the biggest and fastest (if not the most experienced) candidate to unseat injury-prone reserve Domonic Rhodes.
"If he gets the opportunity this weekend and it works out, he should thank the Lord that he got another chance," Smith said.
Last month, several Kansas State players worked out for NFL scouts. According to his agent, Raoul Lee, the 228-pound Davis turned heads by running the 40-yard dash in 4.35 and 4.40 seconds.
Said Lee: "It's like I told Daniel: 'You've got a big "P" on your chest, and it's time to live up to it, Since you've been in high school, people have been talking about potential, potential, potential.' Now, he's got to turn potential into professional."
People are counting on it; it's not just about Davis anymore. He has a 21-month-old son, Darius, and another (already named Taishawn) due in a few weeks. He also has brothers and sisters in Stafford he's vowed to support.
That's why, Davis says, he stayed in school and in shape even after his eligibility expired. Kansas State's coaches allowed him to use the team's training facilities. He and Smith say he's on track to graduate next month with a speech-pathology degree and a minor in criminology--a bit ironic, given Davis' history of run-ins with the law.
But, he insists: "If you look at everything that's happened, everything was either minor or a traffic ticket. In the NFL, that's not going to keep you from playing. In college, it will."
The list of pro athletes who've been arrested wouldn't fit on a football field. But Davis knows that once can be an accident, twice a coincidence, but three times is a trend.
Before the Colts invited him to camp, they had a few questions.
"They talked to me about everything since I was 12 years old," Davis said. "Of course, I'd look into it, too. It's an investment. And you can't throw thousands of dollars at someone if you're not sure about them. I'd have done it, too. This is a billion-dollar industry."
Besides his jaw-dropping athletic ability, Davis also has a disarming charm. It's made him popular everywhere he's gone, but it also has worked against him, because people often overlooked his indiscretions.
"Daniel needs that tough love," Smith said. "For coach Snyder and myself, it was hard for us to tell him, 'You can't be here.' He had to get his stuff together."
Davis claims he was an innocent bystander last summer when two teammates allegedly mugged and robbed a student outside a campus bar. Davis reportedly performed community service and had the theft charges dismissed.
But, as Smith said: "He may have been at the wrong place at the wrong time, but he had some involvement. That's something that Daniel has to get by."
After almost every bump, Davis has sworn he's learned from his mistakes. On Monday, he insisted: "I cleaned my life up. I had to stop doing things I'd been doing for years and years and years. I had to make a complete change. I had to start prioritizing things."
Is this time different? Time will tell. The stakes--and the potential payoff--are certainly higher than they've ever been. And the chances may be dwindling.
Said Smith: "I have a good friend who's [an NFL] running-backs coach, and he basically came down here to see Daniel. He spoke to me and wanted to know if I thought Daniel was making progress, getting his stuff together. I told him yeah.
"I hope he doesn't prove me wrong."
To reach STEVE DeSHAZO: 540/374-5443 sdeshazo@freelancestar.com