All About Deandre Hopkins’ Mom Sabrina Greenlee

Tennessee Titans wide receiver Deandre Hopkins honors his mother, Sabrina Greenlee, every chance he gets.

In 2016, as a member of the Houston Texans, the All-Pro wideout wore pink Adidas cleats to raise awareness for Domestic Violence Awareness Month. Hopkins feels strongly about this particular issue because Greenlee has survived numerous abusive relationships.

The right cleat displayed the phone number for the National Domestic Violence Hotline, and on the left was the phrase “End Domestic Violence.” He also donated money to the Aid to Victims of Domestic Abuse of Texas (AVDA) for every touchdown during that month.

Hopkins continues to pay homage to his mother on game days by gifting her the ball after every touchdown, a tradition that dates back to his rookie season after being drafted 27th overall pick in the 2013 NFL Draft out of Clemson.

“That ball — it signifies love. It signifies strength,” Greenlee said in a 2022 episode of Hard Knocks.

“My mom is at every game. It gives me a different drive than a lot of people. … Just seeing her happy, that’s the best feeling in the world,” Hopkins said in the trailer for ESPN’s 2019 Cover Story.

From a life-changing incident to raising four successful kids, here’s everything to know about Deandre Hopkins’ mom, Sabrina Greenlee.

She is blind

Greenlee’s life changed forever on July 20, 2002. That morning, she noticed her car was gone, and she later realized that the man she had been seeing for a few months had taken it without her permission. When Greenlee arrived at the location he had provided to collect the car, he emerged and apologized, but things then took a tragic turn.

“I was assaulted by a young lady, a female,” Greenlee recalled in a clip from Hard Knocks in 2022. “Unbeknownst to me, she was the girlfriend of a guy I had been dealing with. And she pours a concoction of liquid Red Devil Lye mixed with Clorox. She calls my name and she dashes this on me.”

After being airlifted to a burn center in Georgia from South Carolina, Greenlee was put into a medically induced coma while doctors grafted skin from her chest and put it back onto her face.

“I come out of the coma, but I come out of the coma totally blind,” she explained.

Initially, Greenlee was self-conscious about her scars, even bandaging her face before venturing out to watch Hopkins play. Fearful of the ridicule, she stopped attending games, until her son convinced her to return.

“It goes back to when I got the courage up when he was in junior high,” Greenlee said in a 2019 ESPN profile. “I remember him saying, ‘I just want you to be there.’ So if I’m there, and I’m present, and I’m alive … that’s ultimately all he wants. He doesn’t care that I can’t see.”

She has four children

Greenlee is a mother of four. Along with her NFL star son, she is also a parent to Markesha “Kesha” Smith, Marcus Greenlee and Shanterria Cobb.

In a 2016 interview with the Houston Chronicle, Hopkins praised his mother and her ability to raise successful children, despite enduring difficult times.

“My mother has always encouraged us to work hard and reach for our dreams,” Hopkins said. “As a single parent, she has truly done it all and I know she is proud to have all of her children attend college.”

Smith and Cobb often accompany their mother to their brother’s games and provide play-by-play commentary.

Deandre pays tribute to her during games

Wide receivers typically celebrate a touchdown with a clever dance, but Hopkins has a unique gesture dedicated to his mom.

Whenever he scores a touchdown, Hopkins brings the ball to Greenlee, who typically sits close to the field to be part of the action. The Pro Bowler has carried this tradition with him from his time with the Houston Texans, Arizona Cardinals and now the Tennessee Titans.

“I’m always picturing her, whenever I make a catch, her reaction,” Hopkins said in a 2019 ESPN feature. “And sometimes, when I drop a ball, I’m like, ‘Darn it. I let my mama down.’ ”

For Greenlee, who has not always felt deserving of the honor, the deed takes on added significance.

“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 added in the same interview. “That ball symbolizes so much more than people ever could understand.”

She is an author

In July 2024, Greenlee released Grant Me Vision: A Journey of Family, Faith, and Forgiveness — a memoir recounting her harrowing experience and how she triumphed over adversity. The forward, written by Hopkins, touches on his game ball tribute.

“Although Mama has never had the chance to see me score a touchdown, all through college at Clemson and to this day in the NFL, I bring her the football after I reach the end zone,” he wrote. “I deliver it to her when she sits in the stands so she can touch it, so she can feel that I scored. And that together, we won against all odds.”

Hopkins also gave his mom a sweet shoutout on X (formerly known as Twitter) on the book’s release date.

“Congratulations on your book launch Mom! This is my mom’s story of conquering motherhood. From selling drugs just to feed four kids, to overcoming depression from being blind. This is more than a book, it’s Us,” he said.

She runs a non-profit organization

A decade after the attack that changed her life forever, Greenlee decided to help other women facing similar challenges.

She founded S.M.O.O.O.T.H Inc. (Speaking Mentally, Outwardly Opening Opportunities Toward Healing), a non-profit organization providing counseling, support and workshops to domestic violence victims and their children.

“I felt like it was only right that I pursue the one thing that I needed the most and that was someone to be with me,” Greenlee explained in an interview with NBC News NOW in 2024. “So now we go out and I have women everywhere focused on the transition of women. We’ve done so many amazing things. Most of all, encouraging them and building them up and letting them know that somebody cares.”

Hopkins has also been involved with fundraising and meeting his mother’s mentees.

“It’s helped me learn a lot, about life, about how to treat a woman,” he revealed to ESPN in 2019. “It’s helped me become a man.”

She is Deandre’s biggest fan

No matter who her son suits up for, Greenlee is typically found sitting in the same spot at home games, visualizing her son in motion with the help of her daughters’ commentary. She has been Hopkins’ number one fan since he first started playing.

“I am his biggest supporter. I have always been,” she shared during an interview with FOX 10 Phoenix in 2021. “So I’m that mom that when he was starting out at five or six, I was running up and down the field screaming. I never sit on the bench—as I did all my kids—but just kind of looking like a lunatic running up and down the field, and when he was scoring, I was scoring.”