Photo by Eric Estrada/Getty Images
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Before Miami fell to Buffalo 30-27 on Sunday, former Dolphins wide receiver Mack Hollins was spotted walking barefoot in the tunnel, greeting some of his old coaches and teammates.
During the game, he was spotted scoring a backbreaking go-ahead touchdown on fourth and goal, adding insult to injury in a season that will ultimately require a full-body cast.
Hollins, a likable former Dolphins captain, scored his touchdown midway through the third quarter to put the Bills up 12-10. Watching a journeyman ex-Dolphin currently best known for living a “barefoot lifestyle” (more on that later) score was the first sign of trouble for Miami and the beginning of the chaotic and messy portion of a game that spun progressively more out of control in a way only a Dolphins game can.
Eventually – after the teams traded multiple second-half scores – Buffalo place kicker Tyler Bass put the Fish out of their misery with a 61-yard bomb of a field goal with five seconds remaining, poetically sealing Miami’s immediate fate and likely ending any fantasy of making the postseason.
Mack Hollins really just shows up to games barefoot and then catches touchdowns a few hours later
pic.twitter.com/F7YhRitgD6— Zach Brook (@ZBrook) November 3, 2024
Now, back to that “barefoot lifestyle” stuff Mack Hollins is best known for. Because let’s be honest: Talking about that is much more interesting than anything that happened in another Dolphins choke job, the same game we’ve all watched go down in Buffalo for the past three decades.
While Hollins’ time in Miami – from 2019 to 2021 – amounted to only 30 catches and five touchdowns, his quirky charisma and propensity to deliver in clutch moments left a lasting impression. Since then, the rest of the league has been treated to glimpses into his personality as he has made stops in Las Vegas and Atlanta before landing in Buffalo this season, where he’s gained media attention most for his preference for not wearing shoes.
Yes, you read that right: He doesn’t do shoes until it’s time to go to work. Which just so happens to be in the National Football League.
Buffalo Bills wide receiver Mack Hollins is a shoe disrespecting barefoot legend
“Shoes are a tool & people have made them part of their body. I wouldn’t walk around with a hammer just because I need a hammer sometimes…
Shoes are foot prisons.”
— Will🦶🼠(@Barefoot_Will_) July 30, 2024
As the above video attests, Hollins scored his touchdown against the Dolphins on Sunday while wearing cleats. That’s not only because the NFL’s dress code requires them but, as he explained to Sports Illustrated earlier this season, because football shoes “are just a tool.”
Hollins says he only wears them when needed, then takes them off immediately after because “you wouldn’t walk around with a hammer just because you gotta nail something every once in a while.”
Damn. We’re not going to lie. We were going to make fun of him for this, but that logic checks out.
Former Dolphin Mack Hollins saying hello to an old friend on the way in the #Bills locker pic.twitter.com/Wx20qR2l02
— Thad Brown (@thadbrown7) November 3, 2024
Before the game, Mack Hollins was spotted in the tunnel, greeting some of his old friends on the Dolphins. True to form, he was barefoot, casually strolling around the stadium as though he were at home or on a Miami beach rather than within a public place where thousands of people travel daily. Filthy or fearless? You be the judge.
If nothing else sums up the Dolphins’ season, let it be the visuals of a benchwarmer from the franchise past thriving, moisturized, and in his lane, completely stress- and shoe-free, while the entire Dolphins organization is hanging on the edge of a cliff with their season, and everyone’s jobs, on the brink.
Because we enjoy the pain, we have to bring up that it wasn’t long ago that Hollins was on the other side of the Bills-Dolphins rivalry, answering media questions about how Miami would get revenge for a 35-0 loss to Buffalo.
OH, HOW THE TABLE TURNS. Well, for him, not Miami. They still suck and got their ass kicked, as he put it then, and probably now, too.
Dolphins team captain Mack Hollins shares his message to fellow offensive players about last week’s 35-0 loss to the Bills.
Don’t listen if you have sensitive ears. pic.twitter.com/yp9KyCuchF
— Omar Kelly (@OmarKelly) September 24, 2021
Hollins was just a side note in an otherwise surprisingly competitive yet disappointing outcome for the Dolphins. But to put the season in perspective, his third-quarter touchdown against Miami was his third such score of the season. That’s more than Tyreek Hill and Jaylen Waddle combined. If that doesn’t say it all about how down-bad the Dolphins’ 2-6 season has become, nothing does.
At this point, Dolphins fans would sell the shoes off their feet and join Hollins in his shoeless lifestyle choice if it meant the team wins another game.
