All About Deandre Hopkins' Mom Sabrina Greenlee

Mar. 15, 2025

Texans first-round draft pick wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins and mother, Sabrina Greenlee.Photo:AP

AP

Tennessee Titans wide receiverDeandre Hopkinshonors 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 toraise 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.

“That ball — it signifies love. It signifies strength,” Greenlee said ina 2022 episode ofHard 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 forESPN’s 2019Cover 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

Deandre Hopkins with his mom, Sabrina Greenlee.Instagram/sabrinagreenlee12

Instagram/sabrinagreenlee12

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.

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 ina 2019ESPNprofile. “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

Sabrina Greenlee with her children.Instagram/ sabrinagreenlee12

Instagram/ sabrinagreenlee12

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 a2016 interview with theHouston 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.”

Deandre pays tribute to her during games

Deandre Hopkins handing his mom the touchdown ball.Getty

Getty

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 2019ESPNfeature. “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

Sabrina Greenlee at the 2019 ESPY’s.Getty

“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 sweetshoutout 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

Deandre Hopkins and his mom Sabrina Greenlee onstage during the BET Super Bowl Gospel Celebration.Getty

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 inan interview withNBC News NOWin 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 toESPNin 2019. “It’s helped me become a man.”

She is Deandre’s biggest fan

DeAndre Hopkins playing football.Getty

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 sharedduring an interview withFOX 10 Phoenixin 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.”

source: people.com