PITTSFORD, N.Y. — Mack Hollins loves to be barefoot.
“Shoes are a tool," Bills wide receiver Mack Hollins said. "You wouldn't walk around with a hammer just because you gotta nail something every once in a while. Why do you walk around in shoes just because you might step on something every once in a while?”
However, there is a method to the madness.
"Nothing I do is just for the fun of it," Hollins said. "As much as it looks, there's always a purpose."
In fact, just eight years ago Hollins tore his groin and went online to find a sports massage therapist group from Australia called "Melbourne Muscular Therapies" that would later go on to change his life forever.
"At the time I couldn't walk," Hollins said. "I was ready to retire and they got me back healthy obviously with some other stuff. Body work and other training stuff but the barefoot thing was a thing. So for the next two or three years I just trained barefoot and then I’d say two or three years ago I was like ‘what's the point, get rid of the shoes.’”
Hollins now spends his time at Bills training camp in Pittsford competing for a spot on this roster while also encouraging his teammates to follow in his footsteps.
“It seems crazy what I do and then we're day four, five into camp, their feet are killing them and they take their shoes off and they're like, 'Oh I kind of feel better.' Why'd you wait 'till day five? Why do you wait until your feet hurt to start working on them? Why don't you just take your shoes off? When you go home you take your shoes off and you exhale because it feels good to have them off and you're allowed to take them off so just take them off."
Hollins is proving himself to be the same kind of trendsetter off the field, as he is on.
"We got like 30 guys at walkthroughs that are barefoot now," Hollins said.
Training camp at St. John Fisher continues on Monday as the team prepares to practice for the first time with pads.