John Glennon

jglennon@tennessean.com

The athletic legend of Titans wide receiver Dorial Green-Beckham began taking shape during his sophomore year in high school. Already towering over his peers, he was named the Gatorade football player of the year in Missouri, led his Hillcrest basketball team to the state championship and captured state titles in both the 100-meter dash and the triple jump.

But the biggest moment in the teenager's life that year — and likely the most significant since — occurred away from the football field, the basketball court and the track.

It happened in a Missouri courtroom, where a judge announced that the teen was officially the adopted son of John and Tracy Beckham, a high-school football coach and a nurse anesthetist who've adopted or fostered more than 20 children over the past three decades.

"It changed my life because I was in a bad situation," Green-Beckham said. "When I got with the Beckhams, I felt like a family. I felt home. I felt love."

The adoption by the Beckham family officially put an end to years of nomadic existence for Green-Beckham, whose mother, Charmelle Green, had struggled with substance-abuse issues even before her son was born. He never knew his biological father.

Green-Beckham considers his adoptive parents the two most important influences in his life, the couple who taught him to appreciate a home-cooked Thanksgiving dinner, guided him through the maze of college recruiting and provided him the security he'd never had.

The Beckhams also have supported their son despite his three "red-flag" incidents at the University of Missouri — the last of which was enough to get him kicked off the football team in 2014. Those off-the-field character issues are why Green-Beckham slipped to the 40th overall pick and why some questioned his selection by the Titans.

Green-Beckham knows that his parents stand at the head of his support network, as the supremely gifted athlete with the checkered past begins his NFL career with the Titans.

"They are the best people in my life," he said.

The Beckhams first met Green-Beckham when he was in junior high.

One of his half-brothers, Sam Smith, was a freshman at Hillcrest High, where John Beckham coaches football. Smith told the coach about his half-brother, Dorial, who was living in the Boys and Girls Town of Missouri, a home for abused and neglected children. Dorial's brother Darnell also was living in the home.

On Friday nights during football season, Tracy Beckham — a licensed foster-care provider — began picking up Dorial and Darnell Green and driving them to watch Sam play for Hillcrest. Often, the group shared a McDonald's meal afterward.

It represented a hint of family stability for the two brothers who'd been shuffling for years between foster homes and relatives' residences — once living in a van for a month.

"I don't want to say anything bad about my (biological) family because I still love them," Green-Beckham said. "But I was just in a bad situation growing up. There was a lot of drugs around us."

The relationship between the young brothers and the Beckhams developed slowly.

"It just takes time for them to know that you'll do what you say you're going to do, and for them to know they can trust you — just because they had been jerked around so often in the past," Tracy Beckham said. "I can't even tell you how many stories there were of counselors or teachers or social workers who had let them down in literally criminal ways. That kind of stuff had just happened to them over and over again."

By the time Dorial was 13, the brothers were asking if they could live with the Beckhams, and the Beckhams agreed.

Tracy Beckham remembers the boys adjusting to a more traditional family life.

"Things like sitting down to a meal and being part of a regular situation — they just weren't used to eating regular food," Tracy Beckham said. "For them, it had always been like fast food or nothing, basically. So things like that took time."

Green-Beckham added, "I would say really it probably took me a little over a year to really feel like I was part of the family. At first, I just felt like I was kind of living there. But everything kind of came together as one, and I really felt like they loved me and I'm part of the family."

The brothers' grades began to improve since they weren't bouncing around from school to school and falling behind in key subjects like math and English. The teenager's easy-going personality began to emerge, and his athletic talent started to shine.

By the time he was a sophomore in high school, he asked to be adopted along with his brother, and the Beckhams happily agreed. He officially became Dorial Green-Beckham at the time of his adoption.

"It gave them some stability, the news that we weren't going to get rid of them because they didn't clean their room or something like that," John Beckham said. "I think in that moment, he felt like part of a family, which he didn't feel like before."

Green-Beckham was considered by many to be the top high-school football player in the nation, so his college recruitment riveted the state of Missouri.

When he scheduled a press conference to announce his choice, a Missouri factory shut down for 20 minutes so that workers could watch. In another town, a judge called a 20-minute recess and had a television rolled into his courtroom to hear the news.

Green-Beckham chose the University of Missouri so that his family members wouldn't have to travel far to watch him. But in retrospect, John Beckham wonders whether that might have been the wrong choice because there were so many expectations heaped upon him.

"I just remember telling him the whole time after he signed with Missouri, 'Man, you better score a lot of touchdowns this year,'" John Beckham said with a laugh. "But I just felt like there was no way he was ever going to live up to it all … In hindsight, he probably would have been better off going out of state."

Green-Beckham's career looked poised to take off following a stellar sophomore season, one in which he caught 59 passes, including 12 for touchdowns. Off the field, however, he had three brushes with the law.

There were two marijuana-related arrests, one reduced to trespassing and another in which charges were dropped.

The final straw for Missouri came in April 2014, when police reportedly were ready to charge Green-Beckham with first-degree burglary after he allegedly forced open a door and pushed his way past a woman, causing her to fall down at least four stairs and hit the floor.

Green-Beckham was never charged because the woman declined to prosecute, and he's since said that he never pushed the woman down the stairs. Nonetheless, Missouri kicked him off the football team.

"I was young and I made some mistakes," he said. "I didn't put myself around good people, and I was in bad situations. But I feel like that's in the past and I've made myself a better person."

Added Tracy Beckham: "He tries very hard to be around good people. He looks at himself now as a serious professional athlete, and he knows everything he does has to help things work out. It's very important to him."

John Beckham puts much of the blame on himself; his responsibilities to the rest of his family and high school football team prevented him from giving enough guidance to his adopted son.

"We all get busy with our lives, and I feel like I didn't provide the support he needed," John Beckham said. "He just got caught up in college life. I wouldn't want anyone thinking I'm excusing anything he did, but it's easy to get in trouble when you're a high-profile guy like that."

Green-Beckham's first call when he was dismissed from school was to John Beckham, who dropped everything and made the three-hour drive from Springfield, Mo., to see his adopted son.

"(The Beckhams) have always been by my side, and I thank them for that," Green-Beckham said. "Even though those things happened at Missouri, I just knew the Beckhams were going to be close to me and get me through those things."

The standout football player hasn't played a down of competitive football since then, but two experiences paint a picture of a maturing young man.

Thanks in part to advice from John Beckham, Green-Beckham stayed at Missouri for the rest of his spring semester in 2014, compiling a 3.0 grade-point average.

He then transferred to Oklahoma, and — despite having to sit out the 2014 season because of NCAA rules — he attended Sooners workouts every day at 5:30 a.m., sweated through practices and helped young players on the scout team improve.

Former Oklahoma wide receivers coach Jay Norvell describes Green-Beckham as "basically living like a monk" during his time there — practicing football, hitting the weights, attending classes and going back to his apartment. There have been no legal troubles since he left Missouri.

"We had absolutely no issues with him," said Norvell, who recruited Green-Beckham in high school. "I've always been real fond of Dorial. He's a good guy, a hard worker.

"I've coached a lot of kids in college and in the NFL, and I'd say he's a typical guy. Most everyone has made some mistakes along the way. But I think Dorial has grown up and matured, and I think he's ready to start the next chapter in his career."

That next step, of course, is the NFL, where Green-Beckham already has gone through his first set of offseason workouts. He's purchased a house in Nashville and will move in sometime next month, before the July 30 opening of training camp.

The Titans have all the rookies working closely with Tre' Stallings, the team's director of player engagement, who helps educate players in off-the-field issues such as managing money, developing life skills and transitioning to a post-football career.

In addition, veteran teammates such as receiver Harry Douglas and tight end Delanie Walker will look out for Green-Beckham, offering advice on everything from diet to conditioning to how he should use his down time.

But Green-Beckham has come to realize that his family will serve as his greatest support.

One of his cousins, Mikael Falls-Cooper, will live with him in Nashville. Falls-Cooper, who, like Green-Beckham, was fostered by the Beckhams, is working toward a master's degree in exercise science. The two have been close since they were youngsters.

"I just want to be a second set of eyes and ears for him, making sure he stays out of trouble and just being kind of a brotherly figure when he needs someone to talk to," Falls-Cooper said. "We've known each other a long time, so I feel like he listens to me and respects my judgment on things."

The Beckhams were just in Nashville last weekend, meeting Titans personnel and helping their son pick out a house. Tracy Beckham's motherly advice: "Work harder than anybody else. You won't ever have any trouble then."

The many lessons the son has learned from John Beckham over the years should come in handy now as well, especially since the 22-year-old and his girlfriend will become parents to a baby boy sometime in July.

The same young man who for so many years searched for a father will soon become one himself.

"I'm excited about it, especially being a boy and the first one," Green-Beckham said. "It's definitely a new chapter in my life and definitely a blessing.

"I want my son to succeed, too. I want him to watch me and to learn from me."

Reach John Glennon at 615-259-8262 and on Twitter @glennonsports.

DORIAL GREEN-BECKHAM FILE

Age: 22

Height, weight: 6-6, 237

Colleges: Missouri/Oklahoma

City of birth: St. Louis

Person he most wants to meet: Michael Jordan

On his bucket list: Skydiving

Pregame playlist: Rich Homie Quan, Jay Z, Gucci Mane, Drake

Favorite video game: Mortal Kombat

Favorite actor/actress: Denzel Washington

Tattoos: "Family" on his arm and "Chase Dreams" on his chest

Guilty pleasure: Reese's Peanut Butter Cups