Philadelphia Eagles rookie blends quirky personality, underdog menality in unlikely way

While doing a Rubik’s Cube.

Mack Hollins is not your typical NFL player. He’s not your typical rookie. He might not be your typical anything, really, and it doesn’t take long to figure out how refreshing that is.

The Eagles wide receiver and special-teamer and I spoke for a little more than nine minutes. Hollins solved his ubiquitous Rubik’s — twice — in the time we talked. While looking down at it maybe four or five times. The key, he tells me, is a lot of patience.

“And I’ve never Googled how to do it, I just did it,” he says with a smile. “Kids these days ...”

Hollins is 24 years old, which is technically on the old side for a first-year player. But he carries himself, his teammates say, like a seasoned vet — one who just happens to like motorcycles, exotic wildlife, custom briefcases and other quirks and foibles that make him such a fascinating study.

"He’s got that Rubik’s cube everywhere," Alshon Jeffery said.

“Mack is unique,” Eagles receiver Torrey Smith said. “He’s very diverse. He can fit in with any crowd, hang with any teammate. Listening to rap music while playing on his Rubik’s cube. Or riding on the street on his bike listening to country music.”

Let’s get the snakes out of the way first. Hollins has two of them — a ball python and a sunglow boa — who made the trip with him from North Carolina, where he went to college, up to Philly. Eagles fans have read about them ad nauseum. But many others are just getting hip to this reptile-loving pass catcher and special-teams ace.

The guy wants to start his own aquarium or zoo one day. So where did this love of rare fauna come from?

“My grandfather had a lion when I was growing up. My dad had a monkey,” Hollins explains. “I’ve always had in my life different animals — turtles, fish, snakes, whatever it was.”

A lion, you say. Do you need special permits for that?

“No, not in Ohio you don’t,” he explains of his family’s one-time home state. “You can kind of have whatever you want.”

More on the lion: “It wasn’t one of those hang-out lions. Like where you see on TV and the guy is hugging it and stuff? No. This was like a feral dude, like a real lion, like the ones you’d find in the Serengeti.

“[My grandfather] would throw like a deer in there for it to eat. The cage was big … like a three-car garage size about. It would just roam around and stuff.”

And like that, Hollins has just roamed around in his unique way as a rookie and made a positive impression on his teammates. Yes, he plays football, too. In addition to playing featured roles on three of the four primary special-teams groups, Hollins also is a key reserve at wideout, as well.

“He’s our backup at every receiver position,” Smith said. “When Alshon is out of the game, he goes in. When I am out of the game, he goes in. When Nelson [Agholor] is out of the game, he goes in.

“Very smart and prepared. For a rookie he’s an ultimate pro.”

An ultimate pro who warmed up before the Eagles' Christmas Day game against the Oakland Raiders while wearing a Santa Claus beard and hat — and no, Eagles fans did not boo this Santa. Hollins is proof positive that people can take their jobs seriously even if they don't take themselves quite as much so.

Hollins played in every game this season and has only 16 catches for 226 yards (and only one for 9 in two playoff games), but he opened eyes with his first career NFL touchdown — a 64-yarder from now-injured Carson Wentz. After the score, Hollins unleashed his now-infamous “backpack” dance, a synchronized move that’s a bit harder than it looks. Earlier that morning, Eagles beat writer Jimmy Kempski had taken a picture of Hollins riding his bicycle to the game. From that day on, the quirky Hollins was something of a folk hero among Eagles fans.

Hollins is a motorcycle guy, but he left it at home after the Eagles made him a fourth-round pick last spring because he wasn’t sure how the team would feel about him riding that to the facility every day. So he swapped it out for a regular old bike.

“I got a bike and it was just so easy,” Hollins said. “I live like 10-15 minutes from the facility. As the season went on, I was not going to get a car in like October, November. Might as well just stay on the bike.”

The story got around enough that last week Hollins tweeted that he’d be biking from Philly to Minnesota for Super Bowl LII. “It was a cold, long journey,” Hollins joked about his mock quest, “but I got these legs nice and warm.”

Added Smith: "I'm hoping Mack uses his playoff bonus money toward a car or something. Even though I like the bike."

(For road games, it should be noted, Hollins swaps out his backpack for a briefcase. He explains: “It’s always with me. If I have a suit on, it’s with me. Backpacks and suits don’t go together, but briefcases and suits are a match made in heaven. There are a lot of different things in there. I put whatever I need in there. Prized things.”)

Who knows? Maybe Hollins is destined to play the wide receiver villain role that’s become so famous in Super Bowls involving the New England Patriots. David Tyree, like Hollins, was a former fourth-rounder best known for his special-teams work, before the helmet catch. Mario Manningham wasn’t the first guy you thought of when he made a miracle grab against the Patriots in SB XLVI. Or Chris Matthews or Jermaine Kearse for the Seahawks … maybe Hollins is the next in line for Sunday.

“It’s never been a maybe thing for me,” he said. “Those guys you named just didn’t happen to make plays. They’d made plays before. The ball just came their way a little more or at the right time.

“[Eagles teammates] Chris Long, Torrey, guys who have been to the Super Bowl before, they said, ‘Don’t try to do the most. Do what you have done all year and wait for the play to come to you.’ Whatever ‘it’ is, if you go looking for it, you’re going to end up failing.”

This all winds back to the snakes, interestingly enough. Hollins first got snakes — instead of, say, dogs — because they’re easier to manage. “I feed them like maybe once a week,” he said. “They’ve gone months without eating. Or I’ll put food in and they won’t eat.”

Hollins needed that same patience when he was a walk-on for the Tar Heels, so unknown that many of the assistant coaches had no clue who he was when he first arrived and told him to go run scout team — as a defensive back. Day by day, he slowly made an impression and worked his way up the depth chart, from scout-team offense to special-teams captain to second team all-ACC by the time he left.

“When you walk on, you’re literally nothing,” he said. “I just got what little opportunities I could, built on them every day and go to where I am here. It took time and patience. I wouldn’t trade that experience for anything.”

And with that, Hollins put down the Rubik’s Cube — all six sides once again showing a different bright, uniform color — and smiled.

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