Davis attended college at Grambling State University, where he played football for the Tigers at both offensive tackle and defensive end.

[4] Davis wore number 77 and played at various positions on both offense and defense for the Browns, before being traded to the Green Bay Packers in 1960.

[4] Davis wore number 87 during his career with the Packers, where he was moved to a permanent position at defensive end by Vince Lombardi.

However, John Turney, a member of the Professional Football Researchers Association, reports that Davis had in excess of 100 sacks during his 10-year Green Bay career (1960–69), "possibly more than 120," including a minimum of 40 over the 1963–65 seasons alone.

Davis would intentionally take the leadership position to offer to have lunch and dinner with players that had never played on an integrated team or eaten at the same table with an African American.

He was a member of the boards of Marquette University, Alliance Bank, Dow Chemical (1988–2006), Johnson Controls (1991–2006), K-Mart, LA Gear, Manpower (2001–2020), Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (1999–2020), MGM Mirage, Rally's Inc., Sara Lee (1983–2020), Schlitz Brewing, and WICOR Inc.[7] He was president of All-Pro Broadcasting, operators of radio stations KHTI, KATY-FM, WLDB-FM, WLUM-FM, and WZTI since 1976.

He has a daughter, Lori Davis a lawyer known for her work in marijuana legislation within the Los Angeles children's court system.

[9] His granddaughter, Harley Ann Zepeda, is a beauty pageant queen who holds the title of Miss Los Angeles County United States.

[11] During the 2020 season, the Green Bay Packers wore a helmet decal to honor Davis, featuring his name and number.