Why Dre Greenlaw left for Denver, despite the 49ers’ best efforts

Two weeks ago, as the hours ticked away on a decision that’d shape his NFL future, Dre Greenlaw’s adopted father, Brian Early, reminded him of the first time he brought him to a water park.

It was a year or two after the Earlys took in Greenlaw from a foster home in Fayetteville, Ark., and the young man was still getting used to the concept of structure. He was wild back then, as old high school coach Daryl Patton recalled. And on that summer day, the boy climbed up to ride the slides at White Water in Branson...