And what if Collins chose track instead of chasing Lombardi Trophies on a Redskins team coached by Gibbs, one of the legendary coaches the NFL has known?

But Collins does not to dwell on any of those unanswerable questions. Instead, one of the greatest all- around athletes to ever grace the Treasure State chooses to think of all that football has taught him. And he chooses to express gratitude for the trail he has helped blaze for those who have come after him.

“That’s what I’m proud about what I’ve accomplished,” said Collins, a part of the Montana Pro Football Hall of Fame Class of 2020. “It gives these other Montana kids opportunities and goals to strive for.

Growing up, Collins was such a prodigious athlete, failure didn’t enter his reality until the first of what became a string of reoccurring shoulder injuries struck his senior year of high school. Keeping that shoulder healthy would become a theme but not a hindrance until nearly a decade later.

At Bozeman High School, Collins penned one of the most impressive resumes in the history of prep sports in the state of Montana. The three-sport athlete earned a total of 10 varsity letters, including four in track and field. He won three straight state shot put titles and the 1987 state discus title as a senior. He was a first-team all-state selection in football and basketball as a junior and senior, garnering college interest for all three sports from universities across the nation. He was also a McDonald’s All-American in basketball.

According to his family, Collins had close to 60 Division I offers, many for a combination of football, basketball and track. Back before heavy recruiting regulations, the halls at Bozeman High would sometimes be flooded with recruiters from the top schools across the country waiting to talk to Collins in between classes almost daily.

In the 1980s, Bozeman was an epicenter of elite throwing talent. Havre native Steve Steckel, at the time the Montana all-class record holder in the shot put, competed at Montana State. There, he learned from legendary MSU throws coach Mike Carignan. Steckel competed alongside Lance Deal, who would eventually earn a silver medal at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta in the hammer throw.

Collins spent the springs of 1985 and 1986 chasing Steckel’s record with Steckel encouraging him consistently. Collins did break the record. And he did it in resounding fashion, throwing the shot put more than 65 feet, farther than any high school athlete in the United States.

In September of 1986, Collins appeared in Sports Illustrated’s famed “Faces in the Crowd” section. The passage read:

“Shane, a 17-year-old senior at Bozeman High, won his second consecutive TAC National Junior Olympic shot put title for his age group, in Lincoln, Neb. His 65’1⁄2” throw was the best effort by a high-schooler in the nation this year.”

The following spring, Collins won his third straight state shot put title, shattering his own record. He also earned Montana and National Gatorade Track Athlete of the Year honors in 1987.

Collins considered many schools, including Washington, Texas, Kansas, Minnesota and, of course, ASU. He settled upon the Sun Devils because of the warm weather and the opportunity to compete for nationally-prominent football and track teams.

At 6-foot-3, 265 pounds, Collins arrived in Tempe physical ready to play. But a few weeks into his first August training camp, he dislocated his previously troublesome shoulder “doing summersaults as extra conditioning with a few of the other guys.” On the way down from ASU’s famed Camp Tomazona some 7,000 feet above sea level, the decision was made that Collins would redshirt in the 1987 season.

By 1988, he was a full-time starter. By 1989, he was an All-Pac 10 performer who also earned his second of six combined indoor and outdoor track & field All-American nods. And by 1990, he was an All-American candidate on the gridiron and a national champion in the shot-put circle.

“Shane was the best athlete at his position that I coached in my 25 years coaching college football,” former Arizona State defensive line coach Mike Ackerly said in an interview from his home in Phoenix in January of 2020. “From an athletic standpoint, he was absolutely elite in the things he could do. He was one of the best in the nation in football and in track. Someone might say he just threw the shot put but that takes a ton of athletic ability, balance, and explosiveness.

“I had a kid when I was coaching at Colorado State (defensive tackle Mike Bell) who was the second player taken in the draft and I would put Shane right up there with him if not even better an athlete.

“There’s a lot of things that go into making a good football player. Shane was top-notch athletically but Shane mentally, was a sharp guy who could play more than one position. He was a guy we could plug in anywhere. Probably if we would’ve been smarter coaches, maybe we would’ve used him on offense (laughs).”