Mack Hollins – December 23, 2021
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Thursday, December 23, 2021
WR Mack Hollins
(You’re one of the few players that I believe will give us what the real is about what’s going on COVID-wise within the NFL. How as a player and as a team do you guys internalize this stuff?) – “I think COVID – obviously it’s bigger than any other season but wintertime is the time of year when people start getting sick. Thanksgiving, Christmas, families are in town. The one thing Coach ‘Flo’ (Brian Flores) has really hit on is guys have to put things in order of priority. It’s nice to have your family in town, but do you need to go 10 deep to dinner? Do you need to be hanging out all of the time? We have a season, this season is at the back end and we have a chance to play some more games. We can’t allow you wanting to go to dinner parties and all of that get in the way of what we are trying to build. It’s about being smart. Just like any time of the year, COVID has made it where it’s a little more risky to do those things because you end up missing games or whatever that might be.”
(Do we push Christmas back?) – “I don’t know. Personally, I feel like Christmas has never been a thing. Christmas and Thanksgiving, I’ve played football my whole life. It’s like that’s the holiday that happens during football season so it’s never as big as anything else. If they pushed it back, that would be great because then I could celebrate it for real.”
(We got to follow up on the pet alligator that you were considering acquiring during the bye week. Did it go down?) – “It did not. I actually got to see a bunch, but I was vetoed in my household. The garage was not allowed to be transformed into my alligator sanctuary.”
(Does that mean it’s off entirely?) – “No. This is just for now until I can move some things around in the garage and make it seem like we have more space than we need.”
(You did some research that will let you be more prepared for this next go around?) – “Yeah, if being more prepared is even possible at this point. I feel like I’ve been doing research longer than I want. It’s time to make a move.”
(The one thing that bothers me about the NFL’s new COVID protocol is that even though asymptomatic vaccinated players are generally not being tested now, there are some that are randomly selected to be tested every week who are asymptomatic and vaccinated, which leads to the question what if one team’s star player is asymptomatic and tested and tests positive and is out a game, and the other team’s star player isn’t. It seems random and unfair to me. Do you think it’s random and unfair?) – “I don’t know if it’s unfair. If it’s truly random, than I wouldn’t say it’s unfair. I think at the end of the day, it’s all about safety. If you’re one of the random guys that gets tested and you’re positive, whether you’re the star player or not, what’s more important? The safety of the league or a team or one guy’s individual performance or impact on a team? If you’re randomly selected and you’re negative, it’s totally fine. I think that situation only can arise if my star player’s got it, my star player is positive when it’s supposed to be random and he maybe shouldn’t have gotten tested. That’s the only way that situation can go. I think it’s in the best interest of the league to try to keep players safe.”
(How do you know that you’re going into a game safe and that players that you’re playing against have COVID if we’re not really testing right now?) – “I think that’s why we have these protocols to begin with. We have a large majority of the league vaccinated, traveling with masks on and stuff like that. I think we’re doing a lot of stuff that any other year, if we didn’t have COVID – I know people compare it to the flu but I don’t remember in my life ever walking around with masks at any point let alone as much as we do now. I know things have gotten laxed as humans are. Over time we get laxed in certain situations. But when I go out in a game, there is never a time where I feel like, ‘Oh, one of these guys might have COVID’ or I feel unsafe. I feel like we’ve been doing a good job, especially in our locker room making sure we are safe and keeping each other safe.”
(I think you’re unvaccinated correct?) – “No, I am (vaccinated).”
(We haven’t spoken to you since the epic DT Christian Wilkins touchdown celebration, so I need to get your thoughts on that and every aspect of it. Also now, playing a Monday Night football game, big stage, Superdome and all of that. If you down a punt at the 1-yard line or even score a touchdown offensively, can we expect a big choreographed celebration from you?) – “I would never say choreographed because everything I do is – I work on a lot moves during practice so when something happens, it’s in that list of moves. It’s isn’t a completely choreographed, ‘When I do this, I’m going to do this,’ type of thing. I don’t know if I’ll break out the worm. Christian is quite good at that. I wouldn’t want to copy it or make it look bad. It won’t be the worm but if I’m fortunate enough to make a play, whether it’s in the kicking game or on offense, expect something.”
