Jonathan Greenard of the Vikings is the selfless new leader of the defense

“That’s my brother,” Greenard said of Ryan Tomberlin. “My relationship with him also puts things in perspective. You don’t always have it at its worst. Some people would love to be in my shoes and do what I can, so on days when I’m tired or sore, I just think back to people like him, my daughter [Rayna]my wife [Alta].”

Greenard also thinks back to his mother, Carmen Greenard-Varnum, who once raised three children – Victoria, Mack and Jonathan – on a second night shift at work. He thinks back to his father, Mack Greenard Jr., who encouraged his passion for football but was an alcoholic and died of heart failure in 2014. He thinks back to his stepfather, Washington Varnum Jr., who helped him overcome that grief before dying of COVID-19 in 2021.

One memory of the breakfast table remains in Greenard’s mind.

“Sometimes there were hardly any lights on,” he told the Minnesota Star Tribune. “Man, it was tough. Everyone has stories, but we have some stories. We had it better than others, but it wasn’t pretty. We had to work our asses off – [Carmen] had to work his ass off. The Carnation Milk Story: The three of us shared Carnation cereal [evaporated] Milk.”

“That’s why I’m continuing,” Greenard said. “We’ll never be in a situation where we have to share anything again.”

Greenard-Varnum knew Jonathan, her youngest child, would be an athlete when he was just a toddler chasing Easter eggs. He was so much faster than everyone else, which was also the case when she sent her two sons to youth football. Greenard had his sights set on an NFL career when he put on a helmet at age 5.