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Mere seconds after the 49ers drafted Arkansas linebacker Dre Greenlaw in the fifth round of last week’s NFL draft, ESPN’s talking heads leapt into action parsing his game. Said one expert: “He’s very instinctive against the pass.”
If only they knew then.
Greenlaw came to the 49ers with an untold story. That can be a bad thing — witness the recent outbreak of bad behavior on the part of NFL employees. In this case, a grateful father took to social media to let people know the kind of principled young man Greenlaw is.
My daughter went to a college party when she was freshman. She knew very few people at the party, and also didn't have a ton of experience drinking.
Someone slipped something into her drink when she wasn't paying attention.
— Gerry (@GerryDales) April 27, 2019
And when that guy tried to steer my daughter out the front door, he stopped the guy and said "she's not going anywhere."
— Gerry (@GerryDales) April 27, 2019
And he risked it for my daughter. The guy backed down, and no one saw him again. No one at the party seemed to know who he was, and my daughter and her friends never saw him again.
— Gerry (@GerryDales) April 27, 2019
So, @DreGreenlaw – congratulations, and thank you.
— Gerry (@GerryDales) April 27, 2019
Very instinctive against the “pass”? I’d say so.
Greenlaw was surprised by Dales’ posts.
Ok everybody was tweeting about this story and didn’t want to respond because I wasn’t sure what they were talking about and the girl called me and I instantly remembered she was my high school friend and I was just looking out for her
— . (@DreGreenlaw) April 30, 2019
“When she told me that first time, it really didn’t click, but she said she needed help, and I saw a dude was grabbing at her, so I felt I needed to step in,” Greenlaw said Thursday upon arriving for 49ers rookie minicamp. “I did that and I’m thankful it stopped when it did, and that I took action.”
As for how how the story came to light after her father retold it on Twitter, Greenlaw hesitated to receive such praise.
“It’s not like I enjoyed when I first saw the (father’s) Tweet, like, ‘Oh yeah, this is good publicity.’ I want my publicity to come from playing football,” Greenlaw said. “Because I’ve already experienced where I have to share my story of how I grew up (in a group home) and where I come from. The university made that a big deal and I kind of felt people wanted to talk to me because of that story.”
His heroic actions toward a freshman friend makes a great story. So great that he’ll be expected to live up to it. It says here that he can handle it.
Why? This:
Love Dre Greenlaw already! #Survivor pic.twitter.com/UOlHJPA8fG
— SFN✌️ (@TheSFNiners_) April 28, 2019
