KANSAS CITY, Mo. (KCTV) – Chiefs fans see DeAndre Hopkins’ electric touchdowns and catches.
Players and coaches see the teammate who’s often first to arrive and last to leave.
Sabrina Greenlee can’t see her son anymore — but smiles at clear visions of the 6-year-old impressing at football practice.
“I’m sitting there, the coaches are like, ‘Woah, did you see that?’” Greenlee told KCTV5. “I’m just sitting there like a proud momma, like, ‘Mhmm, sure did.’”
Joyous moments like that would be hard to find by the time Hopkins turned 10.
Caught in a stream of abusive relationships, Greenlee went to pick up a car taken by her then-boyfriend of 3.5 months.
“Young lady comes out with a cup, and she splashes this concoction on me,” she recalled. “My knees hit the ground, I fall on my back, I can’t breathe. I realize that I’m defeated in that moment. That this is how I’m going to die.”
Attacked with acid — a mixture of lye and bleach — and left for dead, Greenlee was eventually life-flighted to a hospital.
When she woke up, her eyesight was gone.
“It was the most trying time that we’ve ever had to endure,” Greenlee said. “I was very present in their lives — every activity, everything. And I go from that to laying in the back room for 3.5 years, totally depressed, suicidal.”
Without her vision, she found a new way to look at life and her four kids.
“What it did was it made us stronger as a unit because the emotional aspect of just really being a mother,” she said. “I had to tap into me, personally and really show them what it was like to be present.”
Today, she’s an activist, author and survivor, proudly attending every home game to root on her son living out his dreams.
Hopkins is a five-time Pro-Bowler and 12-year NFL veteran — but Sunday’s AFC title game marks the farthest he’s ever made it into the postseason.
“We’re just one day at a time, kind of humble, taking it all in,” Greenlee said. “But of course, when he wins an AFC Championship finally, of course it’s going to be an amazing accomplishment.”
“As a kid, that’s a lifelong goal,” Hopkins said. “I don’t like looking ahead. I’ve got to go out and practice today and be perfect.”
One day at a time.
That’s the motto that’s gotten the family through the unthinkable and to the incredible.
“When you look at our lives, and you look at everything that we’ve been through, and climbing from just absolutely nothing but staying together, I think understanding that it takes a village,” Greenlee said. “You can’t do it alone.”
“It’s not just my mom. It’s my little sister. It’s my aunt. It’s everyone who’s helped me along this way and encouraged me to kind of keep going and always keep my head up,” Hopkins said. “Been in some tough places and they were there supporting me as well.”
“He’s just going to go and do his best and be his best,” Greenlee said. “And that’s all any mother can ask of their children.”
Greenlee started her own nonprofit, S.M.O.O.O.T.H., to support victims of domestic violence.
She recently published a memoir: Grant Me Vision: A Journey of Family, Faith, and Forgiveness. Up next, she’ll host an event during Super Bowl week in New Orleans: ‘The Real Game Changers,’ honoring moms and the ‘village’ behind NFL players like Hopkins.
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