AlaskanViking":1n2qzd66 said:
Vikings fan here. Not looking to "talk smack", only to give my 2 cents on a WR who I have followed very closely for his entire NFL career.
First off, Percy is a heck of a weapon on offense. Whenever he plays you guys are going to be happy with him. His elusiveness with the ball in his hands is just silly. He is also tough as nails on gamedays, not shying away from contact at all, almost to the point of being reckless (when he was a Viking I used to worry about how long of a career he would have). His ability to run out of the backfield, both inside and outside the tackles, gives him that "gadget factor" where defenses always have to account for him no matter where he is on the field. He is amazing at getting YAC. I read someone on here say that he wasn't a fit on a Ponder-led offense, and that isn't true at all. With QBs like that who are best with short quick passes, Harvin is the perfect WR. It makes more sense to go for high-completion short passes and let Percy rack up YAC. He rarely saw deep passes downfield.
That being said, you are now getting your first taste of Percy World. He hates to practice. A lot. He also is nicked up a lot with nagging injuries. For as long as he's in the NFL, there will always be drama surrounding Percy Harvin. It's sad, because his attitude didn't really turn so poor until Randy Moss came back for that brief stint with the Vikings. Percy reportedly followed Moss around like a lost puppy and was enamored with him. Moss behaved horribly in his short return to Minnesota (ex: the lunchroom incident where Moss blew up and screamed that he wouldn't feed the team caterer's food to his dog). After Moss was let go, Harvin and then-coach Brad Childress got into a heated altercation, and Percy hurled a weight at Childress (although it didn't hit him).
In the end, I wouldn't be surprised if Percy ends up being fine medically and this was a way to get out of some practices. You can decide for yourselves how much that does or doesn't bother you. There was a time when those antics made Vikings fans say "Meh, as long as he plays on Sundays..." But over time, the constant off-field drama and prima-donna behavior wore on people and chased him out of Minnesota. It's not often you see teams trade away talented WRs in their prime. Especially since at the time we had a completely bare WR cupboard without Harvin. I don't want to see Percy fail in Seattle, the trade is done now and both teams got what they wanted. Hopefully it works out for both teams.
I appreciate the perspective, but I fail to see how Harvin is generating "drama" when the team noted that an MRI showed a possible labrum tear. Do you think he tore his labrum - however much - intentionally to get out of practicing?
The only reason there's any drama is because people - not the Seahawks, the coaching staff, or the players apparently - are getting worked up over the fact that Harvin was held out of practice. These people are ignoring factors like...
1. If a player practices in training camp, he cannot be put on PUP. So if the team has any concern at all that they might need to use the PUP designation on a player, they need to use it right off the bat in TC. After all, they can always activate him whenever they want.
2. A team is going to protect its investment, especially when there is no need to risk it. If Harvin does indeed have an injury that requires surgery, it makes zero sense for the team to trot him out for the first days of TC. If his injury is minor enough that surgery is not required, then all that's lost is a couple of days in July while the 2nd opinion is received.
I think there are a couple of factors that go into people here losing their minds over this. One is that we've been starved of football for so long that everything is magnified right now. The tweaks that some players have that are keeping them sidelined are going to be common currency in the middle of the season. There will be guys held out of practice all the time during the season just to rest/protect an injury, and it won't end up being any real big deal. But because it's right now when people are desperate for football news, it gets blown the hell out of proportion. Secondly, it's just the Seahawks fanbase... we've gotten so burned for so long by so many things that the idea of being optimistic (or even realistic) about something simply doesn't occur to many folks. Any setback, real or imagined, becomes a reaffirmation to many that their team is cursed or doomed or whatever. And it goes beyond the standard fanaticism of people who post on team messageboards. You expect to see highs and lows from any devoted fanbase. And when the Seahawks are performing well, those highs definitely show up here. But when they lose a game, the gnashing of teeth, the negativity, the doom-and-gloom goes above and beyond any excitement shown when the team is successful.
