You can call it luck or fate or divine intervention or anything you want. But there seemed to be something nudging Dre Greenlaw and the Early family together in Fayetteville, Ark., in the fall of 2011.



Greenlaw, the inside linebacker the 49ers selected in the fifth round last month, was 14 at the time and playing cornerback and running back for the local junior high team. Brian Early was a defensive coach at Fayetteville High. There was no reason for them to cross paths at that point.



Except Greenlaw was experiencing back spasms one day and because the junior high had no training staff, he and another player were sent to the high school for treatment. Early usually would have been teaching class at the time that Greenlaw stopped by. On that particular day he wasn’t. He was hanging out at the training facility where he ran into the boys.



He asked them the standard questions: Where do you go to school? Where are you from?



Greenlaw’s...