Real Masculinity

The San Francisco 49ers drafted Arkansas linebacker Dre Greenlaw in the 5th round--his roster spot is far from assured--but he's already made the first team of life, according to the father of a college classmate. [bold added]

[Gerry] Daly, a 52-year-old husband and father of two, shared a story about the Razorbacks’ team captain on Twitter that resonated widely....

In 2015, Greenlaw and Meghan Daly were both freshmen at Arkansas who had become casual friends at Fayetteville High. At the party, Meghan, who hadn’t been drinking heavily with her group of friends, was acting erratically and told Greenlaw at one point she thought a pill, a date-rape drug, had been slipped into her drink.

Gerry Daly said Meghan’s friends later told her that Greenlaw stopped a man from leaving the party with her. On Thursday, Greenlaw recalled stepping in when a man began acting aggressively toward Meghan. Greenlaw helped Meghan find her friends, from whom she’d become separated, and they took her to the nearest emergency room.[snip]

“This is a guy who literally could have screwed up his future by doing this,” Daly said. “If the guy that’s trying to take Meghan away throws a punch and it ends up in a fight, who knows? He could end up getting arrested or thrown off the team. It was one of those things.

“The more I thought about it, the more I realized what he could have been putting at risk for my daughter. The more the shock of the event passed, the more the gratitude set in.”[snip]

Daly appreciated why Greenlaw might want to downplay his role, given he was a freshman on the football team who was at a party where there was underage drinking.

For that reason, Daly didn’t share the story publicly until Saturday, when Greenlaw officially landed in the NFL.

And what does Dre Greenlaw have to say? “At the time, I was just looking out for a friend.”