DeAndre Hopkins leading his blind mother through Arrowhead endears him to Chiefs fans

Lisa Gutierrez, The Kansas City Star on Nov 6, 2024

Published in Football

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KANSAS CITY, Mo. — DeAndre Hopkins had a huge night Monday at GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium, scoring two touchdowns in the Chiefs’ win over Tampa Bay.

But it was what he did after the game that warmed the hearts of Chiefs fans and prompted them to declare him a good fit for Chiefs Kingdom — and a good son.

Hopkins was seen leading his mother, Sabrina Greenlee, through the stadium, his arm wrapped protectively around her shoulders, her arm tight around his waist.

Greenlee was left blind after a woman threw acid in her face in July 2002. She writes about the attack in a new memoir, “Grant Me Vision: A Journey of Family, Faith, and Forgiveness.” Hopkins wrote the foreword.

When Hopkins, newly acquired from the Tennessee Titans, debuted with the Chiefs against the Raiders in Las Vegas last week, he wore cleats that honored his mother with braille symbols.

Photos on a Chiefs fan page on Facebook of mother and son walking through Arrowhead after the Monday night game inspired hundreds of accolades for the 32-year-old player known as D-Hop.

Read some of the comments:

“It says a lot about a Man on how he treats his Mother. I’m very Happy to see this. He’s good for our team!!!!”

“The way he is guiding her with his arm around her shows how protective he is of his mother. What a great son, I am sure she is so very proud of him.”

“Welcome to the RED KINGDOM DHop and Mama Hop.”

“Welcome to the Chiefs! What a wonderful love they have for each other. She should be so very proud of the young man she raised!”

“The story of what his mother has gone through is heartbreaking she is a strong woman and raised a son that truly adores her!!!”

On July 20, 2002, a woman who was seeing the same man Greenlee was involved with at the time threw acid in her face. She has described falling to her knees, then onto her back, and feeling the skin on her face, knees, back and shoulder peel away from her body.

She thought she was going to die.

She ended up in a coma on a burn unit where she was hospitalized for a month.

After having lost two brothers and a fiance, she was left bitter and angry and wondering why the universe seemed out to get her.

“But I just wanted to just take all of that and get on a path of forgiveness.” she has said. “Just trying to figure out how to do all of that, it was tough.”

She told CBS News that everything that has happened to her has created “the woman that I am today. and I know that all of those hardships, it built character resilience, and I’m that woman today that are helping many people through my testimony, through my story.”

She forgave the woman who attacked her, who was sentenced to 20 years in prison.

Hopkins told CBS that his mom “put her ego to the side and cared about our feelings, and thought about us before herself.”

As a young boy playing football in rec leagues, he began the tradition of giving his mom the football after scoring a touchdown.

That tradition is now part of Chiefs Kingdom.

Her son’s new team had Greenlee dancing in the stands on Monday.