Everyone loves to see Mack Hollins, Buffalo’s new barefoot wide receiver

The Buffalo Bills signed veteran wide receiver Mack Hollins back in March. With Buffalo’s training camp over last week, it was time for the local media to get to know Hollins, who will be playing for his sixth franchise as a member of the Bills. The first thing everyone discovered? He doesn’t like shoes.

In fact, Hollins is barefoot most of the time. And every time someone finds out, they have to tell someone else. And since this is his sixth team since being drafted, he’s had the opportunity to explain his barefoot lifestyle pretty regularly. The latest outlet to talk about his bare feet is Buffalo’s local ABC affiliate.

NBC’s local WGRZ also discussed his “barefoot mentality.” Last June, local Spectrum briefly mentioned his distrust of cats before letting him explain his shoeless lifestyle.

“Going out without shoes, having messy hair, eating with my hands instead of utensils, that kind of thing, nobody cares. That’s who I am. That’s what makes me happy. Do the things that make you happy in life. Like I said, life is too short to worry about what other people think.”

When Hollins first signed with the Atlanta Falcons before last season, he was on 92.3 The Game’s Dukes and Bells and explained his ideology.

“I’ve been doing this for four or five years,” Hollins said. “When I have to fly, I’m the worst when I’m wearing shoes. It’s hard for me to sit still because I’m wearing shoes. But yeah, I’ve been barefoot for four or five years and I think conceptually it makes so much sense, but culturally I guess it doesn’t. If everybody walked around with mittens on their hands, people would think it was the craziest thing, but we have shoes on our feet and people wonder why their feet aren’t the way they should be or they’re not strong and why people have ankle problems and knee problems. It would be the same thing if you covered your hands your whole life and then wondered why you have wrist problems or elbow problems. It all starts from the bottom up.”

In 2022, during his season with the Las Vegas Raiders, Hollins made a studio appearance, barefoot, on Hello footballHe had spent the morning walking barefoot through New York City, a story he would later share in Atlanta.

According to NBC Sports Philadelphia, Hollins began taking off his shoes after meeting with a group of Australians who specialized in “holistic grounding exercises” after missing the 2018 season. He had played in all 19 games for the Eagles during his rookie season and won a Super Bowl ring.

People love to ask Hollins about it and he is more than happy to talk about his bare feet. In almost every interview he has, he says that it strengthens his feet and that “you don’t see people walking around with mittens.”

Of course, it’s not just about feet. Hollins would never walk around in mittens because he eats exclusively with his hands. He once told a reporter at a training camp that eating soup made you soft. “You shouldn’t eat soup,” Hollins said. “You’ve never seen a lion eat soup. You’ve never seen a gorilla. You’ve never seen a wild animal eat soup.”

Hollins knows if lions eat soup because he told The Athletic his father had one when he was a boy. So he likes big cats, but doesn’t trust small ones. “I hate cats. Cats steal your soul,” Hollins said. “Never trust a cat. Small ones? No. Never look them in the eye.”

And while you can eat vegetables with your hands, he has repeatedly said he doesn’t eat them. Although he revealed to Hello footballl that he sometimes eats them. “I don’t eat vegetables anymore because it’s not good,” Hollins said on GMFB“The only time I eat vegetables is on Sundays, because I want to starve. I’m a vegan on game day. As a great coach said, ‘Hungry dogs run faster.’”

Hollins had a career-high 57 receptions and four touchdowns for the Raiders in 2022, but settled back into his special teams role in Atlanta last season. Hopefully he can make a big impression with Josh Allen throwing him the ball this season, because with Buffalo playing four primetime games in the first six weeks of the season, networks are going to be looking for stories to tell and people love to hear about bare feet.