Growing up with a former athlete as his father helped Bills wide receiver Andre Holmes find success on the gridiron.
Buffalo Bills Insider Chris Brown provides the details. Here is his report:
It’s been about 30 years since Kevin Holmes was running up and down the court at the Rosemont Horizon in Chicago for the DePaul Blue Demons, but it doesn’t keep those who pass him on the street from stopping him. Those DePaul basketball teams of the early to mid-80’s captured the attention of Windy City sports fans before Michael Jordan exploded onto the scene with the Bulls. Holmes son, Bills newest receiver Andre Holmes, has witnessed it first-hand.
“We’ll be walking around town in Chicago and they’ll go up to him and ask, ‘Are you Kevin Holmes?’ Then they’ll tell me how big DePaul was in those days,” said the younger Holmes. “I loved watching the old games that were taped.”
Holmes hopes he can be recognized in the same fashion and help bring success to a Bills team desperate to return to playoff contention.
“I definitely see that there’s an opportunity to get some more targets and get some more playing time on offense,” said Holmes of his new situation with Buffalo. “But I can’t say that I’m a starter or anything. I’ve got a lot of work to do. There are other great receivers that the Bills picked up and we’re all going to compete and try to do what’s best for the team to get some wins.”
Holmes is very familiar with having to prove himself. Coming from a high school offense that ran the Wing-T, Holmes didn’t get to showcase his talent much as a receiver. But it took a heart-to-heart talk with his father to approach his games with the right mindset.
“He made a huge impact in the type of player I was in high school,” said Holmes of his dad. “I wasn’t getting the ball much and we weren’t winning. So when I told him all this he said, ‘Let’s go grocery shopping.’ And he took me to the grocery store and just so he could get me alone and he walked me up and down the aisles and told me what I should be doing.”
Kevin Holmes told his son to find other ways to make an impact if catching the ball wasn’t likely to happen.
“Types of things like blocking, so even if I’m not getting the ball I can block for touchdowns and stuff like that,” said the younger Holmes. “That set me up for the things I do now because that’s one of the things I like to do is block. Obviously I like to catch the ball also, but I do take a lot of pride in blocking. It stems from that time he took me aside and told me that.”
While Holmes’ son successfully applied that advice to his game, his lack of receiving stats made for very little recruiting by the colleges big and small. When Holmes ran a 4.89 in a high school combine event it didn’t help.
He eventually wound up enrolling at Division II Hillsdale College in Michigan. Even there production was hard to come by, but Holmes continued to work on his game and listened to his father’s guiding words.
Knowing his dad was a successful 6-8 forward for a DePaul team that twice reached the Sweet Sixteen in the NCAA Tournament during his time with the Blue Demons, he relished the conversations he had with his father about a life in sports.
A big senior year at Hillsdale helped put Holmes on the NFL radar as he reeled in 104 receptions for almost 1,400 yards and 11 touchdowns. He only enhanced his draft stock further when he ran a 4.53 40-time at the NFL Combine. Surprisingly, however, he went undrafted, but latched on with the Vikings as a rookie before moving on to Dallas that same year.
Much like his son, Kevin Holmes NBA career got off to a rocky start. After being made a fifth-round pick of the Philadelphia 76ers, the elder Holmes was waived. Soon after he determined that a professional career in Europe was more realistic.
Andre Holmes was also waived near the close of his first training camp in Minnesota. Though he was picked up by the Dallas Cowboys soon after and served most of his rookie year as a practice squad player, Holmes leaned on a father who had been signed by a handful of professional European basketball clubs.
Holmes’ NFL career didn’t really gain traction until he was signed by Oakland in the spring of 2013. He had managed to carve out a part-time role in the Raiders offense and it was followed by his career-best season in 2014 when he had 47 receptions for almost 700 yards and four touchdowns.
The tall, lanky receiver thought his career would take off from there, but it did not. The Raiders selected Amari Cooper with the fourth overall pick in the 2015 NFL draft. They also signed veteran Michael Crabtree that spring in free agency. Holmes was pushed back down the depth chart.
Talking through the business side of football with his dad made the situation easier for Holmes to navigate.
“He’s helped a lot,” said Holmes of his father. “Even now I still talk to him about some of the mentality type stuff of playing a professional sport.”
That’s why when the opportunity with Buffalo presented itself he was ready to listen.
“I think it was a great opportunity to come to Buffalo and compete, to make a big impact on a team that is definitely on its way up,” he said. “Especially with the new coaching staff and everything and then also the security of having a long a term deal, helps out with that too. That is kind of where my mindset was at as far as agreeing to terms with Buffalo.”
Holmes begins the newest chapter of his NFL career with no preconceived notions about his role. He’s learned from his own experiences and those of his father that nothing is guaranteed in professional sports. That fact however, only galvanizes Holmes in his effort to prove he can play a major part in the Bills offense.
“I am not really sure as far as where I will be at on the depth chart,” said Holmes. “There are a lot days before we can really figure that out before Week One. But really all that matters is just working hard and getting myself ready to be as successful as I can to help the team.”
Sounds like the kind of approach a dad would recommend.