ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. — Ray Davis won’t forget where he came from.
“I remind myself every day that I was once that kid in that shelter,” Davis said.
His upbringing was hard.
Both parents in and out of prison.
Foster care by 8.
Homeless shelter at 12.
“To be here and to understand everything that I went through, man, it’s hard not to look back,” Davis said. “It’s hard not to bask in the moments of, dang, how did I get here? Why am I here? Every day I always question that. Not in a negative way, but in a way I’m like, man, I made it. I shouldn’t be here. Everybody knows I shouldn’t be here because of what I went through in my life. But I’m here.”
Here is with the Buffalo Bills.
Davis has used football as a path to get him out of where he was. That began going cross-country to a different high school. Then playing at three Division I colleges, rushing for more than 1,000 yards at Temple, Vanderbilt, and Kentucky.
All the while hiding his story for any and everyone he could.
Not anymore.
“It’s okay what I went through,” Davis said. “It’s okay the situation that I was dealt with. But at the end of the day am I going to mope and cry about it or am I going to go be an advocate for people who were also in the same position I was? To go and prove that this can happen. You can come out on the other side. There is always a light at the end of the tunnel. But for many years I was told there’s never a light. There wasn’t a light bulb. There wasn’t a lamp. There was not a streetlight. There was just complete darkness. When I realized I found that sliver of light I just kept walking towards it and I started to see doors open up for me. I understood that it took for me to talk about it in order for those doors to become even bigger and more open.”
Davis already talking about his past right here in his new home, working with the Buffalo organization Fostering Greatness.
He sees himself in those he speaks with.
He connects with them because he was them.
And as hard as that time was, he wouldn’t change it if he could.
“I’m 1,000% thankful,” Davis said. “Again, without any of that stuff happening to me I wouldn’t be sitting here in front of you. I wouldn’t be an NFL player. I don’t know what I’d be doing in life, to be honest with you. I was dealt with two roads. I could have went left. I could have went right. I chose to go straight.”
Straight ahead of Davis is the Bills 4th round pick gearing up for his first training camp.
Football will obviously be the focus.
It’s been his lifeline to a better place.
And Davis will use that platform to continue to tell his story.
“I think my purpose in life is really just to understand that I’m not just here to be a football player,” Davis said. “I’m here to be a man who can provide a spark in other people’s lives for them to achieve anything that they want no matter the circumstances or whatever’s put against them.”
Ray Davis: running from the darkness into the light and to the NFL.