Scoggins: Vikings’ Harrison Smith is ‘Hitman’ on field and man of many talents off

Harrison Smith didn’t give his first or last name during the Vikings player introductions on NBC’s “Sunday Night Football” two weeks ago. Just his nickname.

“Hitman,” he said into the camera.

He could have said Renaissance Man. Or Most Interesting Man in the NFL.

They all apply.

Smith is a future Hall of Fame safety who is returning to his home state to play the Tennessee Titans on Sunday.

Off the field, he’s a pilot, a musician, a 1-handicap golfer, a collector of vintage cars, a welder, a do-it-himself handyman and a person of infinite curiosity.

“I’m just a tinkerer,” he said.

If something in his home breaks, Smith springs into action. If he doesn’t know how to fix it, he learns about it and then tinkers.

“We actually have a name for it in our household: It’s called Smithing,” said his wife, Madison. “If something breaks and we don’t want to get it professionally done, we just Smith it. So it’s got extra duct tape, throw some glue on it, a couple extra nails … that’s a Smith job.”

Known for his IQ as a player, Smith is a deep thinker outside of football, too. He’s always scheming about his next project.

He became a pilot to cure his fear of flying.

An internet search led him to a training apparatus called Pravilo that was developed in ancient Russia to prepare warriors for battle. Smith went to Home Depot and bought the materials to assemble one of the medieval-looking contraptions at his house.

Smith and his wife recently learned about frequency of fabrics and how different clothing materials can impact the human body.

“He came home with a sewing machine,” his wife said. “He thought he was going to make all of his own clothes.”

Madison knows her husband has hatched a new idea when she finds one of his sketch drawings on a counter. Or when a delivery driver pulls into their driveway.

“We had 15 packages arrive to the front door,” she said of a recent day. “I said, ‘What are we doing now?’”

In a different life, Smith said he would have studied engineering in college. Instead, he graduated from Notre Dame in business management and then earned his MBA from the University of Miami.

He did take a metal class at Notre Dame in which he learned metal inert gas (MIG) welding. He loved the class and still applies what he learned. He welded brackets for toolboxes on his brother’s pickup truck last offseason.

“Those things bring me joy,” he said.

Flying didn’t bring him joy for most of his life. He said he decided to attend aviation ground school to learn about flight “just to be more comfortable.”

One day his instructor asked Smith if he would like to go up in a Cessna. Not really, he answered, but he went along anyway.

“After that,” Smith said, “I thought it was pretty cool. So I started taking lessons.”

Smith doesn’t do anything halfway. He earned his private pilot license and his instrument rating and then went through unusual attitude and spin training in Florida.

“You put the plane into a spin and then get it out,” he said. “The first time you get into a spin, it’s pretty uncomfortable. It’s the initiation of the spin where you go from flying to not flying, that moment takes your breath away.”

So much for being a nervous flyer.

Smith bought a 1986 Beechcraft A36 Bonanza, which he flew from California to Minnesota. Once, on a trip to his home in Tennessee, he landed at a rural, non-towered airport along the route to refuel. He used his credit card to pay at the self-pump and was back in the air.

“There was one guy there mowing grass,” he said.

He sold his plane after a few years because he wasn’t flying frequently.

“I just felt guilty not using it enough,” he said, “because it’s an awesome plane.”

He holds deep appreciation for awesome cars, too. Like his 1966 Chevy Chevelle.

“396 [engine], four speed, pretty much stock but disc brakes,” he said. “Having a car like that is kind of analog, and you feel everything. I drive it every day I can.”

His car inventory also includes an ‘87 BMW M6, featuring a style known as “shark nose.” He attends car shows back home to marvel at the rides.

“It’s kind of gluttonous,” he said, “but if I could, I’d have every muscle car ever.”

If he’s not tinkering on cars, he’s likely on a golf course. He didn’t play regularly until a few years before COVID. Now he’s hooked.

His low score is 4 under par — “I had eight birdies,” he said — and he’s shot even par many times. He’s a member at country clubs in Minnesota and Tennessee and plays in amateur events elsewhere in the offseason. He has become golfing buddies with actors Jack Wagner and Michael Pena.

“As long as I’m invited, I’m playing,” he said.

He expresses his musical side on his guitar. He took lessons throughout childhood, and his go-to song when jamming is “St. Louis Blues.”

He taught himself to play the piano, enough that he can play “Roses” by OutKast. Back in fellow safety Camryn Bynum’s rookie season, the two were discussing their love of music. Bynum mentioned that he was learning to play piano. Smith said he’d like to learn, too.

“So one day I came home and there’s a piano in my house,” Smith said. “He bought me a piano. As a rookie. And it’s a nice piano. I was like, ‘I greatly appreciate this, but this might have been a reckless purchase.’ I’ll have it forever.”

Family members agree that Smith gets his creative side from his dad, a surgeon and master tinkerer. The two bought 400-something acres of undeveloped land near Knoxville. Smith purchased a Bobcat T770 that he uses to clear brush, dig holes and rip out sod.

“That thing is fun,” he said. “It’s a big-boy machine.”

Smith’s older brother Garrett links Smith’s curiosity to his competitive nature. He doesn’t like being stumped by anything.

Garrett and a friend who played college basketball visited Smith in Minnesota early in his career. The three went to a bar that had arcade games, including a video punching bag machine. Pay a buck, punch the bag to register a score.

The group played for two hours, trying to get the highest score. Garrett’s friend, who is 6-6 and 240 pounds, set the bar record.

“We left and didn’t really think much of it,” Garrett said.

Garrett received a text from his brother a week later with a photo of his score. He had broken the record.

“He said he had gone down there by himself and just sat there hitting the thing for an hour until he beat it,” Garrett said. “He didn’t go down there with anybody. Didn’t tell anybody. Didn’t talk to anybody. He finally hit it and broke the record. He grabbed his coat and walked out.”

At least that was safer than the time he sparred with an actual heavyweight boxer.

Smith took up boxing as an offseason workout early in his career. A professional fighter named Alonzo “Big Zo” Butler trained in Knoxville and served as a sparring partner for WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder.

Butler had an upcoming fight and wanted to work on defense. He asked Smith to throw punches without fear of being punched in return.

“I was throwing everything I had at him,” Smith said. “I think I was getting a little overzealous. I hit him a couple of times and he popped me back just to let me know like, ‘If I want to, it’s over.’ He got me right in the nose. It blew up, bleeding everywhere.”

No more sparring these days. He’s older, and his Hitman persona is a football thing. Besides, he has enough other hobbies to keep himself busy, not that he’s ever satisfied. He’s always in search of a project that requires Smithing.