DeAndre Hopkins fulfilled the vow he made to honor his late father at Super Bowl 59.
The Kansas City Chiefs wide receiver arrived at Caesars Superdome in New Orleans on Sunday in the mink jacket he said his father gave to him.
‘My dad died in 1992, and he left me a couple things. And one of the things he left me was a mink jacket,’ Hopkins said at Super Bowl Opening Night. ‘And so I always said I would wear that mink jacket to my wedding or to the Super Bowl, whichever one happened first. And so, obviously I’m not married, so I’ma wear my daddy’s mink jacket.”
Hopkins, 32, was an infant when his father died in a car accident. His mother, Sabrina Greenlee, was blinded and severely burned in 2002 when a woman threw acid in her face. A victim of domestic violence, she wrote ‘Grant Me Vision: A Journey of Family, Faith, and Forgiveness,’ which was released in 2024.
Greenlee has been on hand for the Super Bowl festivities this week and was set to host a brunch on empowering women before taking in the next steps of her son’s journey.
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‘It means a lot to bring my mother to the Super Bowl,’ Hopkins said Monday. ‘She comes to just about all my games anyway. But this one has a little more significance.’
A 12-year veteran and five-time Pro Bowl selection, Hopkins is playing in the Super Bowl for the first time in his career after being traded from the Tennessee Titans – who tied for the NFL’s worst record at 3-14 and hold the No. 1 overall pick in April’s NFL draft – to the Chiefs in October. The magnitude of the moment wasn’t lost on the receiver.
In a post earlier in the week on X, Hopkins wrote: ‘To all the kids out there living in small towns, in small houses, with single parents. To the kids who see violence, who see loss, who don’t get the resources they deserve, but who still have big dreams. Know that I was a kid in your exact shoes and this week I’m playing in the Super Bowl. Don’t give up, work hard, keep believing. Where you start doesn’t determine where you end up.’