But when they boarded the school bus every morning, leaving her alone, she found herself sinking into a vast spiritual darkness. "I was in shock that somebody could look like that," he says. "The dreads, the body movement. DeAndre's father, Steve Hopkins, died in a car accident when DeAndre was a baby. In an interview with Sports Illustrated, DeAndre Hopkins said he had "no relationship" with former coach Bill O'Brien and defended himself against anonymous criticisms that surfaced after he … Latest on Arizona Cardinals wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins including news, stats, videos, highlights and more on ESPN ", Since the attack, Greenlee has had more than 20 surgeries on each of her eyes, including cornea transplants. His mother, a former high school cheerleader, met Steve when she was 19. After Steve passed away, she found herself once again tumbling into relationships where she was subjected to violence, encounters that traumatized both her and DeAndre. A framed picture of his father was propped up on a table in front of him, facing forward so everyone could see his face. I let my mama down.'". He was too young to process the emotional scope of what had happened, too afraid to ask her the simple questions bubbling up in his mind. Live. "I've not always been your typical role-model mother, and he still respects me enough to let everybody see him give me that ball," she says. "It wasn't a peaceful place," he says. Should you bet the over or under for DeAndre Hopkins' projected TD catches? “I was able to cope with being blind and the scars and the ridicule. Every time the Houston Texans play at home, DeAndre Hopkins' mother, Sabrina Greenlee, sits in the same spot in the end zone, close enough to the field to hear the ball smack against the turf. Here's what happened next. When he was 5, his godmother, Frances Hicks, threw him a birthday party in her backyard, and he disappeared for so long that she went looking for him. This ritual serves as a reminder that, while she can't see her son, he still sees her -- and he wants the world to see her too. Images of Hopkins performing acrobatic feats on the field crowded out her fears. The new in-depth feature from ESPN details the inspirational story of a mother and son's bond after a horrific event. Greenlee was a single mother of four in South Carolina, caught up in abusive relationships, hustling to survive. And he visualizes his mother too. She returned home while her children were out with Hicks and waited for them to come back. "She used to always be right there on the field, every game," he says, laughing. Hopkins says he was 6 years old when his grandmother told him what happened. Hopkins' father, Steve, died in a car accident when DeAndre was a baby, leaving Greenlee, then 23, to raise the children on her own. In her late 20s, she achieved greater independence, even saving enough money to move the family into a small house with a driveway that the kids turned into a basketball court. THREE YEARS AGO, the NFL launched an initiative granting players permission to wear custom cleats to promote their charitable causes. "I remember him saying, 'I just want you to be there.' Texans can't afford any more 'wasted' seasons for Deshaun Watson, Arizona Cardinals coach Kliff Kingsbury will enter Year 3 on the hot seat, The NFL's best players at every position: Barnwell picks his 2020 All-Pro Team, Cards' Hopkins defends practice habits in rant. Wed, 3/17 - Chiney and Golic Jr. "That ball symbolizes so much more than people ever could understand.". DeAndre's mother was blinded in an acid attack 17 years ago. Murray and Kingsbury are both entering their second NFL seasons and will now have one of the league's best wide receivers in DeAndre Hopkins at their disposal. (Her attacker, Savannah Grant, was sentenced to 20 years in prison for assault and battery with intent to kill; the boyfriend was not charged.). He played college football at Clemson and was drafted by the Houston Texans in the first round of the 2013 NFL Draft.Nicknamed "Nuk", Hopkins is a five-time Pro Bowler and has also been named to five All-Pro teams. Hopkins has over 8,500 receiving yards and over 50 receiving touchdowns despite not having a stable quarterback for most of his career. His mother, as always, sat by his side. Hopkins started playing in a pee wee league when he was 8 years old. All you've got to do is catch it.’”. She struggled to speak at first, and her vision was gone; her face was still mottled and swollen from the surgeries. Greenlee woke up and saw that her car was missing; she quickly deduced that a man she had been dating for a few months had borrowed it without asking. Hopkins and his mother Sabrina Greenlee spoke out in an interview with ESPN, describing their journey together from a life of poverty in South Carolina to the heights of NFL greatness. Greenlee says she did business throughout the night. "He'd wear girls' jeans, and I'd be like, 'How do you walk in those?'" Stream DeAndre Hopkins on Watch ESPN. As the crowd noise builds, she folds her hands in her lap, listening to the announcer call out down and distance. Read it. DeAndre Hopkins, Stefon Diggs to Play in ESPN Madden NFL 20 Celebrity Tournament Rob Goldberg @ TheRobGoldberg. Featured Columnist April 16, 2020 Comments. Benedict Evans for ESPN. The year Hopkins was drafted, Greenlee started a nonprofit called SMOOOTH (Speaking Mentally, Outwardly Opening Opportunities Toward Healing) in order to assist survivors of domestic violence. "Everybody was like, 'Man, you gonna be something,'" Hopkins says. ESPN+ • E60. She applies it slowly, painting a perfect pout. "She's probably one of the funniest people I know," he says. Early in the series, Deshaun Watson hits Hopkins out of bounds on a short pass. Finally, after several weeks, Greenlee woke up. I'm telling you: There is light after darkness. She can't see her son, but she knows he's there. In the morning hours of July 20, 2002, Sabrina woke up and noticed that her car was missing from her driveway. On Monday, the Texans traded All-Pro wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins and a 2020 fourth-round pick to the Arizona Cardinals for running back David Johnson, a 2020 second-round pick and a 2020 fourth-round pick, sources told ESPN’s Adam Schefter. "He was like, 'Man, just imagine -- one football can take you so far. Since then, millions of people have watched the Texans wide receiver dive for otherworldly catches on the national stage, racking up more receptions through the first six seasons of a career than any other player in NFL history. His 2017 contract extension included $49 million guaranteed, at the time the most ever for a wide receiver. When the Tigers played in Death Valley, she sat in the stands, shuddering with awe whenever DeAndre's name reverberated around the stadium. "We needed food on the table," he says. Seventeen years. (According to Hopkins, his sister was better at football than some of the boys.) All of a sudden, he says, DeAndre popped up and started talking. "I'm always picturing her, whenever I make a catch, her reaction," he says. Her boyfriend picked up her crumpled body, folded her into a car and drove her to a nearby gas station. After a solid start to his college career, Hopkins broke out during his junior year, amassing 1,405 receiving yards and 18 touchdowns. It felt as if a white curtain had dropped over her eyes. "Making ends meet was tough because I'd always depended on guys to do that." Although Kesha helps her mother with errands, Greenlee mostly manages on her own, walking around her apartment in Houston without a cane and using voice-activated technology like Siri and Alexa. Hopkins was just a child, but he was old enough to intuit that the visitors who streamed through the family's doors didn't belong in his house, and he found their presence unsettling. "You don't teach a guy to catch a ball like he can catch the ball. "I was able to cope with being blind and the scars and the ridicule," she says. Some weeknights, as late as 11, he would lace up his sneakers and run for miles. He also inherited some of his tastes. Greenlee was airlifted to a burn center in Augusta, Georgia, where she lay in a medically induced coma as doctors grafted skin from her chest and back onto her face. But romantically, she says, she still tethered herself to the wrong men. "I just knew people have fathers. "That broke Sabrina's heart," Hicks says. By the time Hopkins was in his early teens, everyone in their tiny town knew he was a future star, and locals would flock to the field when his team played, watching him from the road if there wasn't room on the grass. Some of the procedures worked for brief stints, but her vision disappeared completely a few years ago, so she has missed most of Hopkins' NFL career. And I think it gave me the courage to eventually find myself.”, Finally, she relented and let family members take her to one of her son's games. Before she met Hopkins' father, whom she describes as kind and loving, she dated a number of men who abused her. "It can get overwhelming. '", Marcus says he asked his brother what he meant. With Greenlee working two jobs, Hopkins and his siblings (from left: Marcus, Kesha and Shanterria) spent a lot of time outside, playing tackle football in the middle of the street. While he was widely recruited, Hopkins chose to stay home, at Clemson. When she showed up at an address the man had given her to retrieve the vehicle, he came out and started apologizing. The next few seconds were a blur: liquid splashing onto her skin, her back hitting the grass. Speaking Mentally, Outwardly Opening Opportunities Toward Healing, Florida Man 2.0: Behind Minshew's mustache lie 'genius tendencies', Kelly Stafford's recovery from brain tumor: 'My biggest fear is not being here', NFL veteran Vontae Davis quit the NFL midgame. Back. "It's helped me become a man. DeAndre was 10 years old. "And as I'm lying there, the first thing I'm thinking is, 'Why would someone pour warm water on my face?'" DeAndre Hopkins is a former first-round pick out of Clemson, and is one of the more dynamic wideouts in the game today. DeAndre Hopkins caught two touchdown passes as the Texans beat the Colts to take back first place in the AFC South. Her son has quietly worked with her to advance the cause, meeting with the women she has mentored, raising money for her organization and others, and speaking to high school students about his past. I was hoping that it was a dream." "He's always been that guy that didn't care what anybody said about what he was wearing. It's Week 2, and Houston is playing the Jacksonville Jaguars; she's flanked by her two daughters, sitting perfectly still as the countdown clock ticks down to zero. According to an ESPN feature , at the time of the attack, Sabrina had been in and out of abusive relationships. While it's difficult to recount the harrowing sounds he used to hear behind closed doors as a boy, the process of dredging them up can also be palliative, he says. Ten-year-old DeAndre was equally terrified. Kesha says, laughing. "She almost started crying because my dad -- I didn't know this -- he put jelly on everything," he says. When the announcer breaks the news, Greenlee sighs. "Tippy-toes and then out," she tells Greenlee. While some scouts wondered whether his lack of straight-line speed might hurt his draft stock, it was never a question, he says, that he'd leave school for the NFL when the opportunity arose. "I'm alone a lot, so it helps to be in a peaceful state," she says. ", “He was like, ‘Man, just imagine -- one football can take you so far. ", Hopkins had the most receptions (528) of any player in the first six seasons of an NFL career. Presented by Progressive "But now I'm back here again, and I'm the only source of support that my children have ... now I've failed them. "He was completely unstoppable," Kesha says. "I've been here before, not knowing what to do," she says. "I'll help you get out of this, just listen to me. Follow full coverage of DeAndre Hopkins during the 2013 NFL Draft on ESPN.com As a boy, he told himself that a catch could change his family's luck; as a man, he has already delivered on that promise. Like Steve, who used to drive around the neighborhood in shades and a mink coat, Hopkins loved fashion; he'd shop for embellishments at the dollar store when he was a boy, dressing up his cheap clothes with colorful scarves. The move baffled ESPN’s Bill Barnwell, who graded the trade for the Texans and Cardinals.Beyond the acquisition of Johnson, which unto itself was a puzzling move in the eyes of Barnwell, the dealing of Hopkins was … "It wasn't a peaceful place," he says. 'Why didn't he catch it?' ", Borden: Florida Man 2.0: Behind Minshew's mustache lie 'genius tendencies', First-person: Kelly Stafford's recovery from brain tumor: 'My biggest fear is not being here', Meyer: NFL veteran Vontae Davis quit the NFL midgame. "I knew he wanted me there, but it was really tough," she says. "It was really scary -- and to think that's my mom, she's gonna be like that the rest of her life. It quickly became evident that her younger brother, whose hands appeared to have grown more quickly than the rest of his body, possessed a rare gift. Sometimes he would lace up his sneakers late at night and run for miles, just to get away. 'No.' Hopkins said the slave owner's influence is why he doesn't mention Clemson's name when introduced before NFL games. Her foundation has helped dozens of survivors transition to their new lives, giving them vouchers, counseling and even makeovers. Before long, she says, she realized that her boyfriend was gone, and she wondered if she'd been left for dead. "The commentator's talking is not enough -- she wants to know what kind of route he ran," says Kesha, her older daughter who is sitting behind her. Today, Greenlee splits time between South Carolina and Houston. Not because he harbored a preternatural work ethic as a middle schooler or because he coveted freedom, but because he simply wanted to get away. Former Clemson stars DeAndre Hopkins and Deshaun Watson tweeted their support for a petition to rename the school's Calhoun Honors College. Then he launched a pass in the direction of receiver DeAndre Hopkins. ", After the Texans snuff out the Jaguars' first drive and the offense takes the field, Greenlee's younger daughter, Shanterria, pulls up her hood and leans closer to her mother, whispering descriptions of the game -- color commentary, essentially -- into her ear. "We would play tackle in the middle of the street," Kesha says. Murray asserts Hopkins is the best WR in the NFL, Saturday: Watson without Hopkins is like a Ferrari with tricycle wheels. His older brother, Marcus, recalls a night when their mother turned off the TV and the two boys went to their bedroom and lay in silence for a few minutes. Stream DeAndre Hopkins on Watch ESPN. Everyone remembers the boy called Nuk (pronounced "Nuke") -- the nickname stemming from Hopkins' penchant for chewing through Nuk brand pacifiers as a baby -- as an introspective, soft-spoken child. Back then, Hicks says, Hopkins would call and ask her to teach him how to cook for his mother. "In hindsight, it was the worst thing I could've done, when you have kids that are just trying to go to sleep and get up in the mornings to go to school ... but I was just seeing it as a way to make money.". Greenlee sees Hopkins' highlights only in her mind. Over time, she regained her sight in spurts, but it disappeared completely a few years ago, just as her son was emerging as one of the NFL's brightest stars. When she visits shelters, she meets women who haven't shed those feelings of inadequacy. "And sometimes, when I drop a ball, I'm like, 'Darn it. ", So she goes to every home game, sitting in the same spot, doing her best to conjure up a mental image of DeAndre with the help of her daughters' words. "She's really light-skinned, but the entire right side of her face was black," she says. Green is all smiles playing next to DeAndre Hopkins, With or without Larry Fitzgerald, Cardinals' receiver room needs work, Cardinals continued Kliff Kingsbury's penalty-filled history in 2020, J.J. Watt the latest departure in exodus of Houston stars. ", "I've not always been your typical role-model mother, and he still respects me enough to let everybody see him give me that ball," says Greenlee, at the Falcons-Texans Week 5 game. In Spanish-Top Rank Classic Fights: Muhammad Ali vs. Joe Frazier 3 "She'll definitely make a room brighter. The thought no longer plunges her into existential despair. WHEN HOPKINS' SISTER Kesha answered the family's landline that afternoon, she had no idea where her mother had gone. "I visualize everything that he does," she says. "You don't really know what your next day is, or what you're gonna do ... because you feel like you're all alone in the world without your mom or dad.". Benedict Evans for ESPN, When the children were young, their mother held down two jobs, working at an automotive plant during the day and as an exotic dancer at night. She instantly regretted it. He told his mother it wasn't because of her, but everyone knew that was a lie. "It goes back to when I got the courage up when he was in junior high," she explains. She also sold drugs. Live. Kesha, then 14, remembers catching a glimpse of her mother as she rolled past them in a gurney. Ranking the NFL's non-quarterback MVPs: Can anyone top Aaron Donald? "By the time I was 15, I had been beaten about four times, put in the hospital once," she says. It's the catch of the year and the play of the season, and it shook up the standings in two divisions. "I always knew I took care of more than myself from a young age. ", Before the Jaguars' offense trots out, she drops a hand into her purse, fingers grazing the various objects in the bag until she finds a tube of lipstick. A few minutes later, Hopkins emerges from the tunnel -- he's always the last player on offense to come out, Greenlee explains -- and she smiles. Latest on Arizona Cardinals wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins including news, stats, videos, highlights and more on - ESPN Just follow my lead. Stream DeAndre Hopkins on Watch ESPN. With three Bills defenders shadowing him, Hopkins disappeared into a pile of bodies and somehow emerged with the ball and a 32-30 Arizona victory. Latest on Arizona Cardinals wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins including biography, career, awards and more on ESPN "But a couple of seconds later, I realized it wasn't warm water, because my skin is literally falling off my face, my neck, my chest and my back.". That's how long it has been since she lost her vision when a woman she didn't know threw acid at her face, blinding and disfiguring her in a bout of jealous rage. Instead of conjuring up a mental picture of herself as a monster, she envisioned the person her son saw when he turned to look at the sideline after making a jaw-dropping play: a mother who deserved his unconditional love. "Literally no equipment.". 24:31. Benedict Evans for ESPN, Greenlee couldn't go back to her manufacturing position at the automotive plant, so she'd pick up odd jobs like babysitting to make ends meet. She's a wide receiver for a women's team called the Houston Energy, wearing the same No. "He's given me great advice about being a pro's pro, about how to carry yourself on the field and off the field,” Hopkins told ESPN in 2018 about Fitzgerald. DeAndre Hopkins and his mother Sabrina Greenlee are featured on ESPN's Cover Story. A woman she didn't even know threw acid in her face in a jealous rage. He was something of a drug kingpin in their region, she says, and at the time of his death he was out on bail, facing the prospect of spending several decades in prison for trafficking. Stream DeAndre Hopkins on Watch ESPN. Shanterria, who attends community college in North Carolina, flies to Texas for games. Your new monthly ticket to the biggest stories on the most captivating athletes, told with inside access, bold reporting and unforgettable visuals. By the time Hopkins was in high school, his skills had caught the attention of a few colleges. "I want to tell [them] ... you don't have to stay there," says Greenlee, who agreed in May to let a film company produce a movie about her life. Every day, as she took new steps outside the safe confines of her home, her boundaries expanded -- and her son's world exploded. Hopkins wore a white dress shirt with suspenders; he was too nervous to eat his favorite foods. It was one of those toxic relationships that nearly ended her life on the morning of July 20, 2002. That's just God-given." Murray raises his appeal with top-end rushing production (93-544-4 rushing line as a rookie) and is a good … That fall, Hopkins wore pink and blue shoes that had "End Abuse" written on the outside in all caps. The Arizona Cardinals and star wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins have agreed to a two-year, $54.5 million extension that includes $42.5 million guaranteed, a source confirmed to ESPN. © ESPN Enterprises, Inc. All rights reserved. Watch it. After Greenlee's accident, she tried to venture to one of those games, wrapping her face in bandages before stepping outside. "He saw the screams and [heard] the noise behind the door that he wasn't allowed to touch or come in as a young boy," she says. After a brief stint at middle linebacker, he started playing wide receiver, and it wasn't unusual for him to catch six touchdown passes in a single half. Next to the scar tissue on her neck, Maya Angelou's words "Still I Rise" are tattooed in cursive. If her son scores, she explains, her daughter will help her stand up and lean over the barrier so she can accept the football from Hopkins. LeBron James, Randy Moss, sports world marvel at impossible catch by Cardinals' DeAndre Hopkins 2 Related "The gist of the weekend," Wagner recalled in a conversation with ESPN… For now, though, Hopkins gets to share a locker room with Fitzgerald, who's been a mentor to him for a while. "It's helped me learn a lot, about life, about how to treat a woman," he says. People depended on me.". Share it. Hicks says she would occasionally pick up DeAndre from practice, and he would tell her he didn't want to go home. When she opened the door to greet them, Shanterria, her youngest, backed away in fear, as though she had seen a ghost. He doesn't care that I can't see. ", Like her son, who she's quick to point out is also a survivor, Greenlee harbors painful childhood memories -- recollections of being "that 15-year-old girl that took that abuse, that lay on the floor, that didn't think she was ever going to be anything," she says. Greenlee sat next to the fountain, slumped against a wall, slipping in and out of consciousness. Hopkins was a baby when his father, Steve, died in a car accident after hydroplaning on a rainy afternoon. Even though she couldn't see anyone, she was certain that everyone was staring at her, whispering rumors about what had happened. "And I think it gave me the courage to eventually find myself.". "He was as good as that area had ever seen," says Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney, who'd been the Tigers' wide receivers coach before he took over the program in 2008. Because Greenlee worked so much, the kids spent an inordinate amount of time outside, where they'd regularly witness drug sales and shootings. HOPKINS GREW UP in a small town in South Carolina, in the shadow of Clemson University. '", Later in the quarter, when the Texans near the end zone, Greenlee sits up a little straighter, squeezing Shanterria's arm as the crowd hums with anticipation, setting off her sensory triggers. So if I'm there, and I'm present, and I'm alive ... that's ultimately all he wants. DeAndre describes their bond as being as much of a friendship as a mother-son relationship, explaining that no subject is off-limits between them. "I was lost, and I didn't really know how to take care of the kids," she says. After getting the attention of a station attendant, who screamed at the sight of the blood, they brought Greenlee to the back of the store and started pouring water on her face. DeAndre Hopkins Gets Candid, Describes 'Shock' Seeing His Mom After Acid Attack this link is to an external site that may or may not meet accessibility guidelines. DeAndre Rashaun Hopkins (born June 6, 1992) is an American football wide receiver for the Arizona Cardinals of the National Football League (NFL). "I'm pretty sure I started crying, even though I didn't know who my daddy was," he says. Here's what happened next, The jaw-dropping story behind an NFL coach's search for his family, Olympian Aly Raisman: 'We have to change the way our society views women', Inside the risky play that wrecked college center Bill Belichick's leg, Cornerback Jalen Ramsey: The man, the mouth, the legend. "That ball symbolizes so much more than people ever could understand." Once, he was standing in the family's kitchen spooning jelly on fried chicken, and when his mother saw him, she was overcome with emotion. Some days, Kesha says, the two of them would sit at the kitchen table with bags of product, waiting for customers to knock on their door. She learned to move around the house without a cane, her hands grazing the walls like she was stroking an animal's fur; she taught herself how to execute simple household chores so she could care for her kids. Then a woman -- a stranger but presumably another one of his girlfriends -- ran out with a bucket of bleach mixed with lye. ESPN Cover Story, a new franchise that touches nearly every dimension of the organization, launched today across ESPN platforms, with the first story about NFL star DeAndre Hopkins.. She passed the phone to her grandmother, who burst into tears when she heard that Greenlee had been rushed to the emergency room. The Houston Texans announced Monday they were trading three-time All-Pro receiver DeAndre Hopkins to the Arizona Cardinals for former All-Pro running back David Johnson.. she says. UFC Fight Night presented by Modelo: Reyes vs. Prochazka. Afterward, she holed up in her house, refusing to leave for days on end. "He said: 'All you've got to do is catch it. "Having her taken away temporarily like that, it was hard," he says. When Steve died, she was only 23. He wondered if she'd ever watch him play football again. Kesha lives in the same apartment complex as her mother in Houston. When it's time for the home team to run through the gate, a massive flamethrower erupts nearby. 10 as her younger brother, and is planning to start a league for young girls. Next to the heel, an artist painted four tiny icons of women, one of whom was rendered in a different color from the others, a symbol of the one in four women who have experienced intimate partner violence. The other mothers sat on the benches; Greenlee would rumble up and down the sideline, screaming at the referees. Greenlee tried to be present between shifts but struggled to stay afloat. "Third-and-4.". Hopkins sits on the porch of his childhood home in Clemson, South Carolina. Latest on Arizona Cardinals wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins including complete game-by … '", Hopkins' father, Steve, died in a car accident when DeAndre was a baby, leaving Greenlee, then 23, to raise the children on her own. "I was lost, and I didn't really know how to take care of the kids," she says. When the Texans selected Hopkins with the 27th pick in the 2013 draft, he was waiting for the call at a restaurant in his hometown, surrounded by a raucous crowd of family and friends. DeAndre Hopkins. Back in South Carolina, Hopkins and his siblings waited, unsure of when, or if, their mother was going to come home. "I thought I was doing what I needed to do," she says. "'Did he catch it?' "If you come to a critical game situation, I'm a defense coordinator, I'm gonna try and take DeAndre Hopkins out of the play," said ESPN NFL Analyst Matt Bowen, who played safety for four teams. As they do now, her children clustered around her and gave her breathless play-by-play. Football helped. Greenlee recoils, and her eyes, which are the same cloudy shade of white as an overcast sky, glisten from the heat. With the help of her family and friends, Greenlee began to ease back into her old life. He began to wonder if those people were right and he could use those oversized hands to rewrite his family's story. She rarely emerged from her bedroom, only leaving the house to go to doctor's appointments, and she drank heavily to numb her depressive thoughts.
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