Hey, everybody. My name is Lindsay Young and I am a writer and assistant editor here with the Minnesota Vikings. Thank you for joining us for our fourth installment of the Getting Open series that focuses on all things mental health.
So far, we've talked with Jalen Holmes, We've talked with All Pro linebacker Eric Kendricks and his fiance Ali Cortnall, and last week we sat down with tight end Tyler Conklin to hear about the ways that his family has turned a personal tragedy into community outreach and suicide prevention. Over the coming weeks, you will continue to hear personal stories, organizational initiatives, and more about foundations that support this area
of mental health. Today, we're sitting down with Vikings cornerback Harrison Hand, who was a rookie for Minnesota in twenty twenty and contributed both on special teams and on defense. Although Harrison acknowledges the difficulty of being invulnerable, he's passionate about the area of mental health and self care. The NFL did their Micause My Cleats campaign this year with you being a rookie, what did it mean to you
to be able to participate in the MICUs my Cleats initiative. UM, it was very important to me just because I thought it was opportunity to bring light and attention to um, you know, mental health and you know it's awareness and everything. You were one of two players on the Vikings Rafter who had NAMI on your cleats. Can you just tell us a little bit about why you chose NAMI specifically, why that organization is important for you, and why you
wanted to raise awareness. I chose that specific organization because I believe they do a great job in helping, you know, the youth, you know, coping find ways to um, you know, go through life and hope with their problems, and I just believe that that's really important. So you and I talked a little bit offline just about the importance of talking about mental health and taking care of one's mental health. Can you share a little bit of your story, as much or as little as you'd like, just sort of
around the area of mental health. UM. Yeah, UM, you know, just like about everyone else in this world, I went through some tough things growing up, and you know, at a young age, you really don't know um fully or understand what you're going through to an extent, you just find ways to cope and um, you know, do what whatever makes you feel happy, I guess. And you're not taught how to cope with your feelings and everything else. You're really just told really to you know that they're
not real or suppressed them. And you know as a on the male side, as be a man and on the female side, that you're being too sensitive. And that's just something small. But I just feel like that, see, that's something that needs to change because you were kind of being fed that messaging in society. What did you do to sort of cope with the things that you
were feeling or experiencing? You know, you know a lot of people have, you know, different ways, but my specific way, I tend to know I had a lot of things, had a lot of different ways, but one specific way that you know, whether it's may be positive, maybe negative, or however you see it. But I tend to forget the past. I'm more so than I live in the now,
and I look just like the float. And I think that's kind of because of what not been through and how you tend to just forget and put everything by the experiences that you had growing up and also the ways that you kind of cope with things, you know, kind of moved on from the past. How has that shaped you as a person and the man that you
are today? Oh yeah, definitely shaped me because no matter what you react to certain things, on how well I react to certain things, on how I know, you know I've chose to grow up and how I chose to reacting things, and you know, it's still shaping me because I like to get deep and know why I'm acting like that, and then I like to know the why why. I want to know that, and I know it's still shaping me into this being that I want to be.
Why do you think that it's important for everybody, regardless of their background, of their experiences, or their current situation. Why do you think it's important for everybody to pay attention to their mental health and to take care of their mental health. Um. I think it's very important for everyone to prioritize their mental health and their alive because
it affects the way we think, feel and act. No matter whether you know it or not, you're you react to certain things because of you know, what you've been through or what happened in your past life. So I feel like that's a very important thing to know. People use the word self care a lot, right to kind of make sure that they're taking care of their emotions, their mental health. What does that look like for you? I wouldn't say it's a no consistent route every day.
But for one, I don't not a huge technology person, so I just tend to flow, go away, and I just like to live in the now or either you know, watch the TV shows or music, But mainly I like to be alone, um, you know, just quiet time. I really think whether that's you know, going for a walk or you know, just going down sitting in nature, or um, you know, meditating or yoga, reading a book, there's you know,
things of that nature. They're really you're just either locking into something or you really find another reality to go to. What types of books do you like to read. Do you like to read like fiction novels, or do you like to read kind of like nonfiction self help type of stuff. I'm all over the board. Um right now, I'm actually reading scripts of movies, different movie in place. But I like to also research, like you said about you know, self care and different things in the world.
I feel like this past year obviously we've had to navigate the pandemic. There's been increased emphasis or awareness of the social injustices that are going on. And but then on top of all of that, it's your rookie season, You're with a new team, you're in a new city. How important was it this past year to put that focus on your mental health? I say it was not so difficult because, as you know, mental health is something
that I really live by. It's not something that I kind of, you know, think of or every here and there. It's really a lifestyle. You know, it's a lot going through this pandemic, you know, coming through them, you know, combine coming to the season, different things, testing of fans. There was just a lot of different stuff. And that doesn't even play into the actual learning of the playbook, in the tech me that you're going through. So um, I say, it's a lot. It caused me to do
a lot of learning about myself. Now. I learned something new about myself every day. And I say it was crazy, just because trying to juggle everything that you're going through. But no, it's possible. Why do you think there is so much stigma around mental health? I think people are being more and more willing to talk about it, but there still tends to be kind of that stigma. Why
do you think that is? I want to feel like they're willing to talk about it more now is because more people are coming out and explaining themselves of who
they are and why they are. But I feel like there's a stigma because when people hear mental health, they tend to think of somebody being crazy, or you know, they have anxiety or depression, they just want to kill themselves, and you know, to an extent, it may be all of that, but it's understanding that the feel you know, feeble minded and weak if they feel or have empathy towards something or at a young age where taught we're
not taught how to deal with things. We're told to suppress them, and that really no one cares, and reality, to an extent, majority of the world really doesn't. You have to find the ones that you know really do, so you just have to really throw out everyone's opinions. But the stigma is there. You mentioned like finding the ones who are there in your life who do care. How have you been able to kind of find those people in your life that are in your corner who
are that support system, whether it's family, friends, teammates. What does that look like for you? Um, let's start off by saying that I want to say everyone gets a different part of you and you can't you. I guess in some situation there are some people that feel you
can't tell everything too. But it's hard just because I truthfully don't have a lot of people that I know really confide and I can talk to people about things, but when it comes down to fully understanding me, I still, to this day, I still keep things to myself just because you know, I've been doing it since I was born.
Finding the person and the people it's really about the energy and the feeling that you have towards that person in the relationship that you you know that whatever you say will stay between you and the other person, and also that when you're telling them everything that you feel, it's more so they listen and they're not telling you
how to feel. They're more so just there for you to listen and you know, explain how you feel and they also may feel the same way they don't, but to an extent, they're going to know how you feel. The last question I had written down is just what do you hope that people get out of this, whether it's specifically from your message or maybe someone else who's speaking.
What kind of impact do you hope that this series makes? Truthfully, I hope that everyone that watches this or or sees this, that they either find ways to cope and find ways to somebody to talk to, or really just understand themselves of how to be free. And there's either always somebody else that's been through that, and there's always somebody as willing to listen, no matter who it is, And I'd be a person that for me they can talk to. And that's just something that I believe that no people
should learn. Big thank you, of course to Harrison for sharing his thoughts with us and for being a champion for such a great organization like NAMI. Thanks for tuning in again, and we invite you to keep an eye on all of Vikings digital platforms for upcoming features and are getting an open series