The sports world is filled with feel good stories and the New England Patriots just gave the universe another tug at the proverbial heartstrings signing the Hollister brothers to their 90-man roster.
The brothers, Cody and Jacob, always played together all the way up to their time at Arizona Western Community College, but were separated that next year and haven’t played together since.
Cody talked about the transition away from his brother and it was like he wasn’t his full self anymore.
“It was really hard when I first transitioned here at Arkansas,” Cody said to ESPN. “I was legit struggling the first six months. It was like a part of you is missing. I just felt a little depressed, because I think the longest we had been apart to that point was a couple days. But every day we text, talk. I don’t think we have any days when we don’t communicate and I don’t think we consciously think about doing it until somebody asks us.”
Jacob had the same feeling as his brother who took the transition away from his brother very hard.
“When we ended up making the decision to split up, it was hard,” Jacob said. “I started making the trip over to Wyoming it was the hardest day of my life, maybe. But now looking back it’s been important to make our own experiences, spread out, become our own people.”
When it finally came to get ready for the draft process, they were again in it together to build for a career in the NFL. Much like most things they have done as far as they could possibly remember.
“We’ve been working out, going through the whole process together [in Fayetteville, Ark.] so it’s been good to be back together,” Jacob Hollister said. “We really have played all sports as long as I can remember. I don’t think since we were old enough to throw a ball that we’ve had a week where we weren’t playing a sport or working out to play a sport. So we just hope to keep that going.’’
Jacob gained notoriety with his performance against the No.13 ranked Boise State where he caught two touchdown receptions and had 144 receiving yards leading Wyoming to an upset against the elite college team. No other Mountain West tight end had more receiving yards in a single game.
While Cody had 27 receptions for 342 yards in his three-year career at Arkansas with a lot of work with the Razorback special teams crew.
Even though the brothers have uphill battles to make the roster in their respective position groups wide receiver and tight end, an NFL scout told nesn.com that they indeed both had potential to succeed in the NFL
“I think both guys will stick around the NFL for a long time,” the scout said. “They’re mature and ready to be professionals. And that’s gonna help them big time because when rookie camp rolls around, they’re not gonna need a bunch of extra reps.”
