San Jose, Calif. – At Opening Night for Super Bowl 60 – the kickoff for the most important game of the NFL season – New England Patriots enigmatic receiver Mack Hollins was happy to answer any questions – as long as they weren’t about his day job.
“No football, only fun questions on Mondays,” a smiling Hollins told me.
So, instead of talking about the final game on the NFL’s schedule and the impact he would have on it, Hollins and I discussed what the Maryland native would be doing if he didn’t play football and his plans once his playing days are over.
“Whatever I feel like, I guess,” Hollins joked. “Probably in the woods, where I’m going to be after football, man. Go out in the sticks and go live life.
“Maybe regenerative agriculture. Have you ever seen the show ‘Alone’? Maybe something like that, going out to Alaska and being there. Or maybe I’d be a car salesman? (laughs) Who knows. Really, whatever I felt like I wanted to do in life. I was told to just push as hard as I could, whoever you were. So, football happened to be the path I took.”
Hollins said he’s thinking about building a farm but wants to work as hard as he can on football in the present, so he doesn’t have to force himself into something when his career is over.
“Hopefully, I can play a hundred more years,” Hollins said. “But right now, I don’t know exactly what I’m going to do when I’m done. But I want to give myself a runway to be able to play for as long as I can, to be able to retire, sit there and see what Mack really wants to do outside of football.”
With his ritual of walking barefoot around the field before games and his creative game-day outfits arriving to the stadium, Hollins has gained notoriety as a sideshow attraction to New England’s Super Bowl run.
However, there’s a reason the 32-year-old receiver is still in the league. At 6-foot-4 and 214 pounds on his fifth NFL team, Hollins is having one of his best seasons as a pro, finishing with 46 receptions for 550 receiving yards and two touchdowns during the regular season.
While his pregame antics offer insight into who he is off the field, Hollins doesn’t get it twisted, keeping the main thing, the main things on the field.
“Even when you go back to high school, people are like, ‘Mack’s always been a weird dude,” Hollins said. “And realistically, at the end of the day, if you don’t perform, you’re just a guy who’s a weirdo.
“For me, it’s like, ‘He makes plays on Sundays, so it’s OK.’ But the minute I don’t play, it’s like, ‘Oh why is he wearing that in?’ Or ‘Why doesn’t he have shoes?’ Or ‘He doesn’t care about his team.’ That’s the business that we’re in, and that’s OK. I’m all right with that. You have to live and die by the same story.”
For Hollins, the reason behind his walking around barefoot started during his early days as a pro with the Philadelphia Eagles. Hollins connected with trainers from Melbourne Muscular Therapy through YouTube to help rehabilitate after a torn groin injury in 2017.
Hollins flew them out to Philadelphia and eventually made his way to Australia for more recovery. That blossomed into a near-decade relationship with the Australian recovery facility.
“I was about to retire, and they fixed me,” Hollins said. “They showed up barefoot to Philly, and I was like, ‘What the hell are you doing?’ Three years later, I happened to go out to Australia to visit them, and I did all of my training barefoot with them, and it’s kind of grown since then.”
Hollins is part of an unheralded receiving group for the Patriots that MVP candidate Drake Maye throws to that doesn’t get enough attention nationally.
Stefon Diggs led the Patriots with 85 catches for 1,013 receiving yards during the regular season, the seventh time he’s eclipsed 1,000 receiving yards in his career. Veteran tight end Hunter Henry has developed into a security blanket for Maye, totaling 60 receptions for 768 receiving yards and a team-high seven touchdowns.
And Kayshon Boutte added 35 receptions for 551 yards and six touchdowns.
“Coach (Josh) McDaniels does a great job of spreading the ball around,” Diggs said. “Part of the reason we’ve had the success on offense is because everyone gets a piece of the pie. Maybe you will get a little more this week, maybe you get a little less next week. … We’ve got some stars over there. People might not call them stars, but I see them make plays every day in practice. I see how they work.
“That’s what makes this team so close. When a guy catches the ball, you see Mack Hollins celebrating with him. Mack Hollins will have a big catch over the middle, and I’ll do a celebration with him. You really want the guys around you to win. I want them to shine.”
Apologies Mack, but we had to get some football talk in there.
