Whether in the hog barn or on the football field, Chad Greenway has kept his farming roots intact and let principles of hard work and treating others fairly guide his journey.

"The best advice I ever got was from my father," Greenway said at the 2025 Iowa Pork Congress. “That was, never forget where you come from… treat people right, and never forget the principle of hard work.”

A standout linebacker at the University of Iowa and later for the Minnesota Vikings, Greenway grew up cleaning hog pens and hauling feed on his family's farm near Mount Vernon, S.D.

As a self-described ‘broke farm kid’ who had talent and a lot of drive, Greenway leveraged his one scholarship offer — from Kirk Ferentz and the Iowa Hawkeyes – to make the most of his shot.

“I had a lot of fear before heading to Iowa City,” Greenway said. “I knew I had a lot of pressure on me to go out there and perform.”

He said he had to make a choice: to let that fear paralyze him or to use it as motivation and put in the hard work needed to succeed. 

“I decided I was going to prove to everybody that a small town, no-star recruit could go to college and make some waves,” Greenway said. “So, I showed up and started working out. I just kept showing up. Eventually I found that I could keep up with the four- and five-star recruits.”

After an All-American career at University of Iowa, Greenway was drafted 17th overall by the 

Minnesota Vikings. He went on to play for the Vikings for a decade, from 2006-2016. 

He credits the Vikings' culture, fostered by coaches and fellow players, for his NFL success. "The culture — and it started from the top with [our strength coaches] — these coaches helped curate this group of guys,” Greenway said. 

Even with his NFL success, Greenway remained grounded. He emphasized the importance of focusing on the present. 

"We learned to live our team goals day after day after day,” and this, he pointed out, is the path to achieving a long-term goal. “If you’re always thinking about achieving the long-term goal, you're never going to get there. You have to focus on what's happening today."

In 2008, a couple years into his NFL career, Greenway and his wife Jenni — herself a standout athlete for the Hawkeye track and field team — founded the Lead the Way Foundation.

“My family's ability to give back and use the platform of the NFL in order to start a foundation and help communities across the Midwest ... is something we're very, very proud of,” he said.

This organization is now credited with helping more than 300,000 people through a variety of programs, including Chad’s Locker that provides books, video games, laptops and other electronics to children’s hospitals for use by the patients; Field of Dreams which grants sports-related wishes for sick children; and an effort to build accessible playgrounds around the Midwest, to provide “a place for kids to get fresh air and feel like a child, even if just for a few minutes in the middle of their treatment,” the organization’s website states.

Looking back on his football career and what he’s accomplished after the NFL, Greenway again credited his parents as his inspiration for how to live a successful life.

“Here’s the value of a hard day's work. I look at my folks,” Greenway said. 

“They were managing a family business, they were married and being a mom and dad to us kids. Seeing them go through … the trials and tribulations of running a farm and raising a family … but showing up at home, every night, kissing each other and having supper as a family — I realized that’s what really matters. That’s what it’s all about.”

Greenway and Jenni have four daughters and have passed on their winning ways to their kids. Their oldest, Maddyn, recently committed to playing basketball for the University of Kentucky in 2026. She was also named the Minnesota Gatorade Player of the Year in March.

"Treating people right means shaking their hand and looking them in the eye when you talk. Relationships are everything," Greenway concluded. He and Jenni found that at Iowa and Maddyn found the same thing at Kentucky. 

“I told her to think of these principles right here and you make decisions based off that,” he said. “This applies to whether it be for your business or your family. Keep things simple and boiled down, you’ll usually make the right decision.”