On July 26th, 2024, loan officers from Sure Sports and All Pro Capital Funding, a pair of financial companies, met at a SpringHill Suites Hotel in Buford, Georgia, to conduct some business.
They set up a video conference to close an arrangement in which Michael Penix Jr, the newly arrived quarterback of the Atlanta Falcons, was set to receive a promissory note worth $3.3 million (€2.82 million). Once the technology kicked in, somebody claiming to be Penix Jr came on screen wearing a durag covering on his head and flashing a Florida driving licence as identification. Apparently this was enough to convince all involved of his bona fides and to get the deal done.
Two days earlier, the real Penix Jr had started his first rookie training camp with the Falcons, who had selected him eighth in the NFL draft. A crucial phase in the development of a prospect, and a time commitment that perhaps explained why he could not meet the financiers in person just a few miles down the road.
Still, nobody involved in the virtual encounter questioned why the young man who had recently received a $13.46 million (€11.45 million) signing bonus and a four-year $22.8 million (€19.5 million) rookie contract needed to borrow money. Nor did they notice his driving licence headshot resembled a profile picture of him widely available on the internet, or that the guy on camera looked a lot older than somebody fresh out of college.
READ MORE
The lack of due diligence mattered because Luther Davis was the character wearing the head gear on camera that day. Calmly passing himself off as the city’s hot new quarterback, he convinced those lenders to wire a seven-figure sum to an account he controlled.
That Davis is near 40, much heftier, and bears little resemblance to Penix Jr was no impediment to the scam. As he assumed it wouldn’t be. After all, he’d already pulled versions of this very flimflam with great success across the country. Sometimes he wore wigs to improve his impersonation of some unsuspecting NFL player. More than once, he donned make-up to play the part. Whatever the sting required.
By the time authorities caught up with Davis last month, he and CJ Evins, his partner in crime, had secured nearly $20 million (€17.1 million) from 13 loans drawn using the identities of gridiron stars like Cleveland Browns tight-end David Njoku and Green Bay Packers safety Xavier McKinney.
Across a lucrative 18-month grift, all it required was creative printing, fraudulent documentation and enough knowledge of the contracts of the athletes involved to flesh out applications. Setting up fake email accounts, they registered companies with “names closely related to the impersonated player’s name or initials”, then splurged the money received on cars, jewellery and real estate.
Davis brought genuine sporting pedigree to his nefarious enterprise. A coveted high school defensive tackle growing up in Monroe, Louisiana, he first garnered headlines when controversially opting to play for the celebrated Nick Saban at the University of Alabama instead of his native LSU. His decision to go to Tuscaloosa paid off when he played his part in winning a national championship in 2010 and profiles from that period describe somebody having to mature fast following the birth of three children during his student years.
It gets difficult at times, but I wouldn’t trade it for anything in the world
— Luther Davis
“I haven’t even been to a team party since my sophomore year,” said Davis in one interview. “So that life is long gone ... A lot’s changed in my life that has made me a better person, a more God-fearing person and a better student of the game. I think a lot of the guys on the team respect the fact of everything I have to do.
“Being a student-athlete is enough to do, but at the same time, going home to be a father, it’s pretty difficult. It gets difficult at times, but I wouldn’t trade it for anything in the world. I love my boys to death. I just hear that ‘dah-dah’ and it does my heart good every time.”
A decent collegiate career brought a tryout with the Buffalo Bills in upstate New York – about which the southerner knew so little that as the plane came in to land he gazed out the window hoping to see Central Park. When no pro contract materialised, Davis next came to national prominence in 2013 after being implicated in a scandal involving illegal payments to college footballers at Alabama, Tennessee and Mississippi State. In an era of strictly enforced amateurism, it was alleged he served as a “runner”, ferrying tens of thousands of dollars in transactions between sports agents, players and their families.
[ Liam Rosenior was focused on his message, but top coaches manage resultsOpens in new window ]
Following his role in that tawdry affair, the NFL rebuffed his subsequent attempt to be certified as an official players’ agent in 2014. No matter, He has regularly described himself as just that in the years since. Styling himself as Luke rather than Luther Davis, he gave a lengthy interview in 2024 about the unique nature of his sports management and representation business.
“When I started RockSource about 12 years ago, I didn’t quite know what I wanted it to be other than something unique and different from what the other agencies are doing,” he said.
That’s one way to describe securing loans in the names of players he didn’t even represent. At a federal court in Atlanta last Monday, Davis pled guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud and aggravated identity theft. Crimes for which he could end up serving as much as seven years. As himself.
