Vernon Davis breaks down in tears after scoring highlight-reel touchdown following grandfather's death

Vernon Davis is 35 years old and still making defenses look absolutely foolish.

The Washington Redskins tight end wasted no time getting back to work in Week 1 with a 48-yard catch-and-run touchdown including a devastating hurdle over the Philadelphia Eagles.

Davis looks like he’s heading out of bounds before leaping over Ronald Darby and taking off across the field. Not even Johnathan Cyprien could catch up.

As soon as the play ended, Davis became extremely emotional as he made his way back to the sideline. Sunday marked the first time the tight end played football since the death of his grandfather.

A tribute Davis posted to Instagram on Saturday afternoon shows the the kind of relationship he had with his grandfather and why the touchdown on Sunday felt especially important.

You can guess as to how much that was on Davis’ mind as he was making his final strides toward the end zone.

It’s also a good reminder that before guys like Kyle Rudolph, Jimmy Graham and Trey Burton were redefining what it meant to be a pass-catching tight end, Vernon Davis was out here showing everyone how it was done.

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Blake Schuster is a writer for Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at blakeschuster@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!

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