One such friend is Harrison Smith, who's had a front-row (well, really, adjacent) seat to DePaola's genuine nature, as The Hitman's locker has been beside Sir Po's (a nickname bestowed by Daniels) since he signed with Minnesota five-plus years ago.
Smith, entering his 14th Vikings season, is grateful to have a locker mate just a year-and-a-half older than him and joked the two can commiserate about aging bodies and aching joints.
"We're grumpy vets sometimes, and we can lean on each other to get by," Smith quipped. "But it's really great. I could ask DePo any question off the top of my head, and we'll have good conversation about it. We're also in similar stages of our lives and careers, and it helps to have a guy like that around, feeling what you're feeling and in the same shoes.
"We had Jets (Justin Jefferson) right there by us, and we had Kirk \[Cousins\]. Now we've got J.J. \[McCarthy\] and Aaron Jones and Sam Howell over there, so it's a good little location, and we're kind of the OGs on the block now," Smith continued. "We've had a lot of good times just hanging out at the lockers."
The Vikings have had a history of interesting long snappers during Smith's tenure, including Cullen Loeffler, Kevin McDermott and DePaola.
"They have so much time, they _should_ be able to develop a personality; the rest of us, we're just football jocks. We don't have much depth to us," Smith deadpanned. "But no — DePo, there's a lot of layers to him, but just a solid, solid dude and a great teammate. There's a reason he's been around for so long. He thinks about others quite a bit, guys that he doesn't even know, and you can tell you he takes pride in it."
DePaola has built a rapport also with Minnesota community members and Vikings fans.