“If her son scores, she explains, her daughter will help her stand up and lean over the barrier so she can accept the football from Hopkins. This ritual serves as a reminder that, while she can’t see her son, he still sees her — and he wants the world to see her too. ‘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 says. ‘That ball symbolizes so much more than people ever could understand.'” ESPN’s Mina Kimes on Texans receiver DeAndre Hopkins who says he owes his career to his mom. The Unbreakable Bond.