Call Mack Hollins a journeyman if you want, but Patriots love the course he’s charted – The Athletic
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SANTA CLARA, Calif. — We had just one question for Mack Hollins, but the New England Patriots receiver is not one to be limited or boxed in. So we had to hear a little about his desire to be a farmer — even though he hasn’t eaten a vegetable in four or five years. “They’re better for medicinal purposes,” Hollins said.
Then there’s Hollins’ famous habit of walking everywhere barefoot, and he now wants to own an aquarium that he can swim in.
He’s been the most interesting person in a Super Bowl week largely devoid of star power or buzz. Hollins has held court with the media Monday, Wednesday and Thursday, when he brought along a chess board for reporters to make a move against him before they asked a question.
No one expected the Patriots to be here at the Super Bowl, and they are a sum of underrated, interesting parts, none more so than Hollins, whom teammates such as Drake Maye and Stefon Diggs praise for his grit and leadership.
“You know, you can be an individual,” Hollins said. “You can be Drake or Steph or whatever you want to be as long as you’re pulling in the same direction. You don’t have to be some photocopied version to be successful.”
Hollins, 32, said he has always been seen as eccentric, even dating to high school in Rockville, Md. Which is why it’s important that he keeps catching passes in the NFL (his 46 receptions and 550 yards this season were both the second most in his eight-year career.)
“If you don’t perform, then you’re just a guy who’s a weirdo,” he said.
Which brings us back to our million-dollar question: Why has Hollins, a physical 6-foot-4 receiver who is also a standout on special teams, been on five teams in five years?
The Dolphins, Raiders, Falcons, Bills and now Patriots. (Before that, Hollins was drafted by the Eagles in 2017, cut in 2019 and picked up by the Dolphins.)
Why is Hollins, dare we say it, a journeyman?
“I’m totally fine with that label,” Hollins said. “Because I chose wherever I went, outside of getting released from Philly and picked up by Miami. I always was able to pick where I saw value and they saw value in me.
“Don’t go where the money’s the best or you think the opportunity is the best. Go where it feels the best. And you only learn what feels the best from trial and error. So yeah, if I’m a journeyman, so be it. At least I got to do it my way.”
Patriots offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels had Hollins with the Raiders in 2022, the season Hollins had career bests of 57 catches and 690 yards. Count McDaniels among those surprised a team never locked Hollins down.
“Yeah, he’s the kind of guy that you never want to lose,” McDaniels said. “He’s very unique and allows you to do a lot of different things. And he’s as good a teammate as I’ve ever had an opportunity to coach. He’s unselfish, and he’s helped our young players learn how to be a pro, learn our system and do their job the right way.”
Diggs said he has learned things from Hollins.
“Alternate medicines, things that he does, things that he eats, how he moves on a daily basis,” Diggs said. “He’s one of my different teammates.”
Receiver Kayshon Boutte agreed but will never come around on Hollins’ walking everywhere without socks or shoes.
“That’s just nasty,” he said.
Hollins shrugged. Yeah, his feet may stink and have cracks in them, but it’s worth it to allow your feet to spread and increase blood flow and reduce inflammation. He swears by going barefoot, after he contacted Melbourne Muscular Therapies via an Instagram direct message in 2019 after two painful groin injuries and subsequent sports hernia surgery.
“We’re electrical systems,” Hollins said. “And you have to have a ground rod. If you know electricity, you know you have to have a ground rod. So there has to be some correlation, whether you believe it or not.
“Go outside and feel the grass on your feet. You feel better, right?”
Hollins lists improved mobility and stronger knees and hips as being well worth the pain of stepping on a rock or having pitch-black feet.
It’s fitting that Hollins prides himself on doing the dirty work on the football field, such as special teams coverage and blocking on running plays.
“The player I am now is a complete player,” he said. “I wish I would have had 1,000 yards every year and still be in Philly nine years later. I wouldn’t have had to buy new jerseys for my family six times. But it worked out just the way it’s supposed to.”
Hollins is under contract next season and would love to break the streak of a new team every season. He thought he had found a home with the Bills last year but “there were parts of the organization that I don’t think valued me anymore,” he said.
He says that while fiddling with a copy of “Pastured Poultry Profits,” by Joel Salatin. Hollins once took real estate classes and has worked toward getting a pilot’s license, but the current obsession is to get every family member their own cow.
“I’m building a farm right now, and I got big into regenerative agriculture and just the importance of health and the food we eat and how you’re not what you eat, you’re what you eat eats,” Hollins said. “Farmers are kind of villainized as these people that either don’t work hard or dumb, and neither of those things are true. I have such respect for them, but I think there’s got to be some way to fix the food system … as I stand on my soapbox here.”
With that, Hollins smiled.
He has that strong connection to the ground, and he’s found value in developing a small field of land in Georgia, cheaply and the right way. And he won’t have to worry about its value, sell it or move somewhere else and start over again.
“At least your family is going to eat good food and be happy,” Hollins said.
