Former Colts punter Hunter Smith: 'I'm enjoying the things that last forever'

He jumps on a mud-spattered four-wheeler and rambles across rolling acres in Zionsville. It's a bumpy, winding ride, but Hunter Smith has something he wants to show off.

A towering white oak tree fascinates Smith. A tree that is 335 years old and sits hidden on the property where his house is being built.

"Three grown men couldn't wrap their arms around it and touch fingers," Smith says, looking in awe. "Its trunk is more than 18 feet in circumference."

A tree, not the Super Bowl ring Smith has shoved down in the pocket of his jeans, is what he cares to talk about. Most Super Bowl winners would want to show off the ring; his was won during the 2006 season when Smith was a punter with the Indianapolis Colts.

Not Smith.

He wonders how a tree so ancient, a tree that was already 180 years old when the Civil War started, has survived.

"Think about how many reasons there are it couldn't be here," he said. "Like when it was a sapling, how many deer could have trampled it? It could have been cut down for firewood. There are all kinds of reasons it shouldn't be here."

Smith shouldn't be where he is, either. He acknowledges that he's beating the odds. Many NFL players come out of the league beaten down, suffering from concussions or depression, struggling through financial ruin.

"Yet, here I am years later, when all of my cohorts are supposed to, statistically, have their lives falling apart," he said. "I'm enjoying — not that I'm doing it all right or anything — but I'm enjoying the things that last forever."

Life for Smith means three things — he's clear on this — God, family and music.

"Football is a memory and a special thing," said Smith, 37, a married father of four. "I still have a lot of camaraderie with those men, but the best things are now and the best things are ahead and not in the past."

* * *

Look ahead. That is the theme of Smith's second album. It's his life's theme.

With his days of booming footballs behind him, Smith is blazing a new career as a musician.

His Hunter Smith Band will release "Wake Up To Your Story" Aug. 28. It will be available on iTunes, Amazon and at huntersmithband.com.

The five-man band plays gigs all over the United States. It has opened for country classics such as John Michael Montgomery and will open for Eddie Money this month in Chicago.

Smith takes his songwriting and performing as seriously as he did his 12-year NFL career, 10 years of which were with the Colts.

He has fond memories of the bond that Colts players had. Even then, Smith was singing. There was another singer on the team, tight end Ben Utecht, who has launched his own musical career while battling traumatic brain injury.

The two came together for a rather embarrassing performance when they were Colts, singing at a fundraiser.

"Our friends made fun of us pretty bad for it," Smith said. "We sang a song with harmony with microphones in front of a bunch of people and we looked at each other while we sang."

Winning the Super Bowl with Utecht and that team is a great memory for Smith.

"It was really neat, the confetti; having my wife there was really special," Smith said.

"On the other hand, winning the Super Bowl opened my eyes to how the things of the world are kind of engineered."

* * *

Smith realized quickly after winning the big game against the Chicago Bears in Miami that the glory was short-lived.

"Can the Colts repeat in 2007?" reporters began asking the next day.

"I thought, 'Wait a minute. Can we repeat?' " Smith said. "We just won. Can't we just stop and celebrate this one?"

Smith had what he calls an epiphany on the flight back to Indianapolis.

"This doesn't last. There are things in life that last. And this is not one of them," he said. "I learned about the temporal things of this earth a lot more and the eternal things. Family and God."

Smith didn't give up football then, but he kept his priorities in check. He played with the Colts until 2008 and then went to the Washington Redskins before retiring after the 2010 season.

And with that, the music started. His band released its first album, "Green," 2 1/2 years ago. Sales have continued to be steady, Smith said, and the album served its purpose of showcasing the band's sound and helping it book shows.

Then the band made a hard decision — to wait, to build up a fan base before coming out with a second album.

"One of the things I've really tried to do in this band is be responsible," he said. "Sure, there are guys that have lots of money who played in the NFL who can just fund their hobby. But I really don't want to do that. I want to have a career."

The waiting paid off. "Wake Up To Your Story" is being produced by Thom Daugherty, a former guitar player with The Band Perry.

The accomplishment brings back memories for Smith, of listening to Kenny Rogers and George Strait as a kid. Now he likes to compare his band to another great, Keith Urban.

"There's something country there, but there is nobody cooler in the pop sense than Keith Urban," he said. "That's kind of where we fall, in that genre. There's one foot in country. We're something and country."

* * *

Country makes sense for Smith, who grew up on a cattle ranch in the small city of Sherman, Texas.

His dad ranched and worked as a supervisor at Texas Instruments. His mom stayed home with Smith and his older brother and sister.

The ranch was 1,000 acres and home to herds of beef cattle, cows that grazed, drank out of a pond and then were sold.

"My whole life was farm work. That was what we did," said Smith. "We fed cattle all winter and worked them in the summer, which means vaccinating, castrating, all that fun stuff. That's kind of what I did and then we played football."

Football came early. His dad taught him to punt when he was four years old, the same punting technique Smith used in high school, at Notre Dame and then in the NFL.

"In Texas, I don't know if you really have a choice about football," he said. "That's just what you do."

Music — and faith — also came early.

Smith grew up in a Church of Christ that didn't allow instruments. No guitars, no pianos, no background music.

"Our church services were so hilarious," he said. "There is this old boy who comes up with a hymnal and he says, 'Open up your books to page 400' and then you start singing. And if you don't sing, you don't have music, so everybody had to sing and everybody learned all the harmonies and stuff."

Looking back, Smith jokes that God had more important things to worry about than people playing the guitar "for Him."

But the experience was a critical one for Smith, who credits the church with launching his musical career. Leading worship services in college was when he fell in love with playing for people and serving them with music.

* * *

If Smith seems far from a cocky NFL Super Bowl winner, he is.

"Hunter and I both know how much of a regular guy he is," said his wife of 12 years, Jennifer. "He is a wonderful regular guy, but very normal nonetheless."

Inside the home, he doesn't talk about football or his accomplishments.

"He doesn't believe they validate him," she said. "If you want to get his wheels turning, talk to him about his family."

That family includes his four children, Josiah, 10; Samuel, 7; Lydia, 5; and Beau, 2.

"When each of our kids were placed in his arms the first time, I saw something come to life in him I hadn't seen before," Jennifer Smith said. "He is the best father I have ever seen."

He plays sports with them. He sings to them. He instills his faith. He is dad, not former NFL champion.

Same goes for the band.

"Hunter is just a guy to us," said drummer Alex Reiff.

He's just a guy because that's what Smith wants. When Reiff met Smith 10 years ago, he was 18, working out at the same gym. Smith asked him what he did. Reiff said he played drums. Smith, still a Colts punter, said he played the guitar. Not football. He played guitar.

"Hunter is probably the most caring person that I know," Reiff said. "He is the most influential person, other than my dad, in my life on how to be a man."

Of course, football is a part of the Hunter Smith Band. When they perform, Smith tells stories of his NFL days.

"When we play, we know there is a gimmick. Come see this Colts player," Reiff said. "In the end, we want the audience to say, 'That's a really awesome band. I saw an awesome musician and a great storyteller and that's crazy that he also played football.' "

* * *

Now Smith is up in the tree.

"I'm going to be fined so bad for this. They are about to kill me," he says. "They are going to make so much fun."

They are former Colts players Dallas Clark, Ryan Diem and Dylan Gandy, who happened to walk up while he was up in that tree. They are part of his weekly Bible study group. They came by to bring him lunch and a little ribbing.

"Please tell us this is the album cover photo," they joke. "How'd you get up there?"

They get serious when asked about Smith as a musician.

"Great music. Phenomenal songwriter. Storyteller. Artist."

Smith beams. This is what he wants. To move forward, move past being known as an NFL punter.

"I think of music as something eternal," he said. "Something that can be there long after any Super Bowl ring."

See the Hunter Smith Band

WHAT: Album release show for "Wake Up To Your Story"

WHEN: 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. Aug. 28. The concert is 7:30 p.m. to 9 p.m.

WHERE: Traders Point Creamery, 9101 Moore Rd., Zionsville.

Follow Dana Benbow on Twitter: @DanaBenbow.