Football is a game of inches, but for Mack Hollins, it’s a matter of feet.
The Buffalo Bills wide receiver arrived at his team’s home game at Highmark Stadium against the San Francisco 49ers on Dec. 1 in bare feet.
The game, which aired on NBC’s “Sunday Night Football,” was played in snow and frigid temperatures, but that didn’t stop Hollins, who scored a touchdown in his team’s 35-10 victory, although it should be noted he did wear cleats while he played.
Still, even just showing up barefoot affected other extremities — namely eyebrows. That’s because fans seeing his entrance on X had plenty of thoughts on Hollins.
“Mack Hollins: OUT (Frostbite),” one person wrote.
“How do u walk barefoot in under 0 degree weather Am I wrong?” someone else commented.
“Dude looks ridiculous,” pointed out another exasperated user.
“At least he was wearing gloves….” someone else joked.
Hollins, who is known as a mad scientist for his series of challenges he posts online — including one in which he sits in a pool set at 55 degrees — says he has done barefoot training with a team out of Australia.
“It’s been great for me,” he said in a prior interview. “It’s funny because everybody should be barefoot. You don’t see people walking around in mittens. If you don’t use your fingers, you don’t have the dexterity to use it — same thing with your toes and feet and your ankles.
“A lot of people have ankle problems or knee problems because you don’t move them around. They’re caught in a shoe, and then they’re lifted up because they got the cushions in the back. It’s kind of like you’re walking on tiptoes all the time. It’s definitely helped me with my takeoffs, my getoffs. I feel like I can grip the ground better.”
Electing to be barefoot can be dangerous, though.
“Frostbite is a freezing injury to the body’s tissues caused by prolonged exposure to cold,” Johns Hopkins Medicine says. “It can cause lifelong (permanent) damage to the body. The most common places affected by frostbite are the fingers, toes, cheeks, chin, ears, and nose.”
The easiest way to get frostbite is by remaining in frigid conditions.
“Frostbite is caused by exposure to cold temperature, often below 32°F (0°C),” Johns Hopkins Medicine adds.
Hollins is in his eighth season in the NFL, although he missed the 2018 season due to injury. He has also played for the Philadelphia Eagles, Miami Dolphins, Las Vegas Raiders and Atlanta Falcons.