Wendell Tyrone Davis (born January 3, 1966) is a former professional

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team with ...

wide receiver who played for the

Chicago Bears The Chicago Bears are a professional American football team based in Chicago. The Bears compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) North division. The Bears have won nine NF ...

for six seasons from 1988 to 1993. He was selected by the Bears in the 1st round (27th overall) in the

1988 NFL Draft The 1988 NFL draft was the procedure by which National Football League teams selected amateur college football players. It is officially known as the NFL Annual Player Selection Meeting. The draft was held April 24–25, 1988, at the Marriot Marq ...

.Pro Football Reference
Wendell Tyrone Davis Davis was a two-time All-American at

Louisiana State University Louisiana State University (officially Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, commonly referred to as LSU) is a public land-grant research university in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The university was founded in 1860 nea ...

. In his pro career, Davis played in 81 games, catching 207 receptions for 3,000 yards and 14 touchdowns. His career effectively ended on October 10, 1993, in a game against the

Philadelphia Eagles The Philadelphia Eagles are a professional American football team based in Philadelphia. The Eagles compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) East division. The team plays ...

. While planting his feet to catch an underthrown deep ball from QB

Jim Harbaugh James Joseph Harbaugh (; born December 23, 1963) is an American football coach and former quarterback, who is the current and 20th head football coach of the Michigan Wolverines. He played college football at Michigan from 1983 to 1986. He play ...

, his cleats got stuck in the

Astroturf AstroTurf is an American subsidiary of SportGroup that produces artificial turf for playing surfaces in sports. The original AstroTurf product was a short-pile synthetic turf invented in 1965 by Monsanto. Since the early 2000s, AstroTurf has m ...

Veterans Stadium Veterans Stadium was a multi-purpose stadium in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, at the northeast corner of Broad Street and Pattison Avenue, part of the South Philadelphia Sports Complex. The seating capacities were 65,358 for footb ...

. The force of being pulled back to the ground was so severe that it completely severed the

patella The patella, also known as the kneecap, is a flat, rounded triangular bone which articulates with the femur (thigh bone) and covers and protects the anterior articular surface of the knee joint. The patella is found in many tetrapods, such as m ...

tendon in each of his knees. Doctors later found his kneecaps had been pushed all the way into his thighs. He spent several months in a wheelchair, with his legs encased in casts from thigh to ankle. After spending the entire 1994 season in rehab, he attempted a comeback with the

Indianapolis Colts The Indianapolis Colts are a professional American football team based in Indianapolis. The Colts compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) South division. Since the 2008 ...

in 1995, but did not appear in a game. In October 2009, Davis became the wide receivers coach for the

San Francisco 49ers The San Francisco 49ers (also written as the San Francisco Forty-Niners) are a professional American football team based in the San Francisco Bay Area. The 49ers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the league's National ...

under

Mike Singletary Michael Singletary (born October 9, 1958), also known by his nickname Samurai Mike, is an American professional football coach and former middle linebacker. After playing college football for the Baylor Bears, Singletary was drafted by the Chi ...

. Following the arrival of new head coach

in 2011, Davis and the rest of the San Francisco coaching staff were replaced. Davis then coached at

Palo Alto High School Palo Alto Senior High School, commonly referred to locally as "Paly", is a comprehensive public high school in Palo Alto, California. Operated by the Palo Alto Unified School District, the school is one of two schools in the district, the other b ...

in the 2011 season, and in 2012 was hired as the wide receivers coach for

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

References

1966 births Living people American football wide receivers Chicago Bears players Coffeyville Red Ravens football players Columbia Lions football coaches LSU Tigers football players San Francisco 49ers coaches High school football coaches in California All-American college football players Ed Block Courage Award recipients Fair Park High School alumni Coaches of American football from Louisiana Players of American football from Shreveport, Louisiana African-American coaches of American football African-American players of American football {{widereceiver-1960s-stub