What is the Mack Mile? I will let the man who came up with it explain it to you.
“It’s two-and-a-half laps, not counting end zones. From bottom left corner goal line around, that’s one lap. Around again, that’s two laps, 150 yards—100 then 50 across, then 50 more yards and then turn around. It’s about 1,600 yards.”
This supposed mile run has been the talk of Raiders camp through the first week. With several other Raiders players partaking in it.
“I did partake in the Mack Hollins mile,” said Darren Waller. “This was in the spring, after every lift. So, we’d condition, then we’d lift, and then after the lift we’d go out and run a mile. . . It’s supposedly a mile. You got to ask Mack. We’re taking his word for it.”
It sounds like just a fun little camaraderie thing, but it’s a lot more than that.
“At this level, every player can run a mile, no problem, after every workout,” said Hollins. “There’s no time of it. There’s no speed on it. You just have to do it, so it’s just mental. So, you do a hard [workout] during OTAs, you do a hard lift and at the end I can still do a mile. When you’re in the third, fourth quarter and I‘m hurting, I can still do a mile and I can still get a couple more plays. That’s the mindset behind it.”
So, it’s about finding that second wind when it counts the most. Some Raiders players, like Waller, average over 90% of the snaps. If they are winded and lose a step late in the game, it could mean the difference between winning and losing the game.
It’s things like this that have Josh McDaniels saying Hollins is an “offseason award winner” for the team.