Harry's a badass

The Purple Persuasion@TPPSkol
Per #Vikings S Harrison Smith via@Alec_Lewis

Smith tore a muscle called the gracilis in his left leg in early Dec 2015 against the #Seahawks. It was a 90% tear initially. The muscle is still torn today, but Smith purposely tore the remaining 10% and brought him to tears trying to do it.

“I had also torn a muscle called the gracilis in my left leg. It’s still torn”… “Yeah,” he says, “we just left it alone.” The backstory: In early December 2015, the Vikings played the Seattle Seahawks. Smith had already hurt his MCL, and on one of the first plays, he swooped in for a tackle for loss. “A sick TFL,” he says. The next play, on a pass to the flat, the muscle snapped, but Smith says it was “only 90 percent torn.” Doctors said he could undergo surgery, but then he’d miss time. Smith says they also told him he could tear it himself and keep playing. He tried to tear it on his own by jumping up and down. The pain brought him to tears. He still practiced. “It hurt like a b—-,” he says. One afternoon, after a play in practice, he was walking backward and bumped into a teammate’s foot. The gracilis fully popped. “I was like, ‘Oh, I’m good now,’” Smith says. “It was fine after that.””