Mack’s leadership has been well talked about at this point in his Hall of Fame career — he sets the tone on and off the field.
The 12-year veteran, an unquestioned leader since he arrived, works as hard as anyone on the team throughout the calendar year and is known as a lead-by-example kind of player who speaks up in his own impactful way.
And having seen his fair share of seasons in the NFL, he knows how to give the team what it needs at any given point from a leadership standpoint, both on and off the field.
Knowing the situation, he made sure to set the tone from the start of the week, being very direct on what kind of week the team needed to have.
“At times like this it takes more than just talking. It takes a little more action,” Mack said at the podium the Monday before the game. “Just want to see a lot more action-based things at this pivotal time of the season.”
This particularly week, however, Mack led the way in manner that he felt was needed.
It was one where the veteran still showed the same hard work he normally does but also had a vocal presence that needed to be had.
What a player of Mack’s caliber says speaks so loudly that Tuli Tuipulotu felt it was needed in that moment.
“It was a lot more vocal. He talked to us, we had meetings with players just watching over the film,” Tuipulotu recalled. “He was just doing what he does. He saw where we were at after the game and he felt like he needed to step in.
“And we did, we needed his leadership,” Tuipulotu added. “We’re grateful for that.”
Tuipulotu, now in his third season, has seen up close the type of impact Mack makes on the group on a daily basis.
For a player like Mack to speak up the way he did, Tuipulotu said it was something that stood out even more.
“100 percent. When guys like that talk, everybody listens,” Tuipulotu said. “Especially if he’s not the type to talk a lot, whenever he talks everybody listens.
“We all buy into what he says because he’s done great things in this league,” Tuipulotu added. “He knows what needs to be done.”
