Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Big-play Dre
Greenlaw did it all for Fayetteville
The Prep Rally: Best in the West series will highlight the all-time best players in western Arkansas as selected by the Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
The question caught Dre Greenlaw a little off- guard, but one of the rising defensive stars in the NFL thought about it and delivered a quick and concise answer.
The question was: “What is the bigger game, the Super Bowl or Fayetteville vs. Bentonville.”
“Woo man,” Greenlaw said. “That Super Bowl is going to win that, of course, but that packed stadium when Bentonville and Fayetteville play, man, there’s just nothing like that.”
Greenlaw got to experience both, and those memories are something he will carry into his second season with the San Francisco 49ers in 2020. The former all-state defensive back for the Purple’Dogs was a rookie surprise for some last season when he was thrust into the starting lineup for the Niners.
It was no surprise to anyone who saw him play for the Purple’Dogs.
“Big-Play Dre” came up big for San Francisco with several key tackles late in the season in helping the Niners advance to the Super Bowl against the Kansas City Chiefs in February.
“Playing in the Super Bowl was a dream come true,” said Greenlaw this offseason. “You don’t really know what to expect, so you just take everything for what it’s worth. When you finally get on that stage, it’s like everything I’ve gone through in life, I’m finally at the place where I worked all my life to be.”
The Niners came up short in the big game as Patrick Mahomes led a Chiefs’ comeback in the final six minutes to claim a 31-20 win in Miami.
The loss has Greenlaw and his teammates eager for redemption this season, although covid-19 might still impact the NFL as we know it.
“It’s a big accomplishment like no other, but the fact that we came up short makes me really hungry and to want to go back and do it again,” Greenlaw said.
Before Greenlaw’s career path took him to South Beach, it started in Fayetteville, where he earned his nickname from his former coach Daryl Patton.
The moniker was well-deserved. Greenlaw was the very definition of big plays as he scored touchdowns in every possible way for the Purple’Dogs. He returned punts and kickoffs for scores, ran and caught passes for scores, returned interceptions for scores, and even fired a touchdown pass.
“He did everything except kick extra points,” said Patton, who is now the head coach at Little Rock Southwest, which will open this fall and play its first season. “Just a smart football payer with a lot of athletic ability. We knew he was going to be special.”
Greenlaw’s past is well documented. He grew up in the foster care system before Brian and Nancy Early took Greenlaw into their home. With a stable home life and just being able to eat when he wanted played huge factors in Greenlaw’s development on and off the football field, Patton said.
“When he came to Fayetteville through the foster care setting, he had some issues,” Patton recalled. “He was a kid in junior high that couldn’t stay out of trouble. It was a tough deal coming up in ninth grade, but Coach Early and Nancy saw something in him at a very early age that they liked. From a football standpoint, he was always a yes-sir, no-sir kid to me, and he was a kid who always had a smile on his face, always. I’ve never seen him upset. We just had to tone him down some. When he first got there he was bouncing off the walls. Once he got into the Early’s home, he could see he had some guidance, some structure.
“What I’m really proud of is that he developed into a great leader for us. From the time he was a sophomore to when he was a senior, he was a role model and leader. You could trust when you turned your head, he was going to do right and he held other people accountable.”
His numbers on the field as a senior were just as significant. Although he had committed to Arkansas State where Brian Early was a defensive coach, he eventually signed with the University of Arkansas. In 2013, Greenlaw led the Bulldogs to the state championship game for the third straight year by recording 130 total tackles, 4 interceptions, and 2 caused fumbles on defense. He also had 210 punt return yards and 504 kickoff return yards to go with some work on offense.
Focusing on just defense in college was something he had to get used to after never coming off the field at Fayetteville, he said.
“It was a change for sure because I was used to being on the field at all times,” he said. “But it helped me understand that position a lot better rather than trying to learn three of four positions. It helped me to put my body into the position I was going to play and prepare. But playing so many positions also helped me to get to where I am now.”