FOXBOROUGH – Stefon Diggs was caught on camera.
The Patriots veteran walked along the visitor’s sideline in Miami, approached the bench and asked Kayshon Boutte and DeMario Douglas to push over so he could sit between them.
“Good things happen when I’m between y’all,” Diggs said.
As the Patriots were battling with the Dolphins in the fourth quarter, the receiver wouldn’t let anyone change that arrangement. Diggs stopped Boutte from standing up, grabbing his jersey, and patting the bench. He then stopped rookie receiver Kyle Williams and backup quarterback Joshua Dobbs from joining them on the bench.
“You superstitious?” Dobbs asked.
“I’m stitious,” Diggs replied. “Not superstitious.”
The Patriots hung on to beat the Dolphins that day, their first win of the 2025 season. As it turned out, Diggs and the Patriots receiver were “stitious” about more than the order they sat on the bench.
Little did anyone know that week in practice, a few Patriots receivers decided to wear the same practice outfit on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. The key was to wear the same color shorts every day.
Select receivers wear blue shorts on Wednesdays, red on Thursdays, and then dress in black on Fridays. When the weather turned cold, players switched to pants but retained the daily color coordinating.
After winning that first game, the group decided to keep it going. The idea originated from Mack Hollins.
“For years, I wear certain colors. But I’ve never done it with a group, Hollins said. “Then Diggs got on it. Pop got on it. Now, it’s kind of a whole group things, which is fun. We look like the Rockettes out there.”
“Because Steph stitous, Mack turned stitous,” Douglas. explained. “So everybody’s stitous now.”
This season, the Patriots’ receiver room has been praised for being unselfish. Each week, a different player could emerge as quarterback Drake Maye’s top target. Four different receivers and six different pass catchers have led the Patriots in receiving yards through 15 weeks.
The group has grown close. Their decision to dress alike every week is also about camaraderie. Although Diggs admitted he was “stitious,” the veteran said he’s tried to get receivers to all dress alike on teams he’s played on in the past.
“I more so don’t think it’s like stitious. I just think it’s team camaraderie,” Diggs said. “Like, we gonna wear the same stuff, we gonna all practice the same. We’re gonna work hard. Whatever one of us do, we all do, basically.
“Every team I’ve been on, we try to wear the same (expletive). We’re receivers, and on tape, it looks good when you all wearing the same stuff. It looks like y’all in unison.”
If a player caught on early, he was allowed to stay on. That’s the case for Williams, but not everyone. The rookie didn’t have a pair of red shorts on Thursday. After joining his teammates for blues on Wednesday and blacks on Friday, the rookie came to Gillette Stadium.
“I woke up, came to the facility, and next thing you know, they’re there,” Williams said.” It’s getting cold. You do the red shorts, and it’s like, ehh. But I came and had a Christmas present with some red sweats. I’ve never seen red Nike sweats like the ones we got. That was dope.”
Superstition supersedes uniformity. For example, the week the Patriots beat the Dolphins, Boutte didn’t conform to practice fashion. Since he didn’t, and they won, teammates asked him to dress differently.
Every week, Diggs, Hollins, Douglas, and Williams wear the same color-coordinated practice outfits, while Boutte wears whatever he pleases.
“Boutte’s got to stick with what he’s doing,” Williams said. “Hopefully, next year he’ll come and join the trend. We’re going to keep things going the way we’ve been going.”
Douglas added: “We’re very stitious, so we just keep it the same.”
Over the Patriots’ 10-game winning streak, which ended on Sunday, the receivers banded together, dressed alike, and openly rooted for one another’s success. That’s not always the case in an NFL receiver room.
“It’s one of the caveats, one of the little intricacies of team building,” Diggs said.
“I just enjoy them having camaraderie,” Patriots receivers coach Todd Downing said. ”The bond that they’re building in that room is pretty cool to watch, and the different ways that that manifests itself, it can be interesting at times.”
Their connection has also helped throughout this long season.
By the late weeks of the season, players are tired and hurt. The season’s long and the physical grind becomes difficult. Inside the Patriots locker room, the team’s receivers have bonded over color-coordinated practice outfits.
The small thing has brought more joy for players already doing what they love.
“When we first started it, a lot of the defensive guys and other guys were commenting on it, but that’s something we do to stay engaged and continue to have fun with it,” Williams said. “Football is so hard on you mentally that sometimes you forget to step back and be like, ‘Let me enjoy this.’ So, the little things that we can do, changing up our drip a little bit, coming up with celebrations, the things that we can do to enjoy the game and find that love. It’s a kids’ game, and you want to feel like a kid.”
