Buh-Bye!

It looks like Percy Harvin took about a week more than 19 months to wear out his welcome in Seattle. The Seahawks traded the pesky receiver to the New York Jets yesterday for a single, conditional draft pick. It's being reported that the single draft pick could be as high as a 4th round pick in the 2015 NFL Draft. That's surprisingly little and a decent drop from the nice bounty that the Seahawks gave to the Minnesota Vikings for Harvin on March 11, 2013. The Vikings received the Seahawks 1st and 7th round picks in the 2013 NFL Draft and their 3rd round pick in the 2014 NFL Draft. Harvin's value to NFL teams has dropped in the last 19 months. It's a real shame. The drop has nothing to do with his football skills. He's one of the most explosive football players in the entire league. He's simply a pain in the ass.

The Minnesota Vikings got a steal when they selected Percy Harvin with the 22nd pick of the 2009 NFL Draft. He was a top-10 talent that some thought could tumble out of the first round. Some of the concerns were over Harvin's health. In particular, his history of migraines. The good news was that he hadn't missed a game due to migraines while he was at Florida. The bad news was that he had them. These migraines were such that he was compelled to smoke pot to ease the pain prior to the NFL Scouting Combine. That resulted in a positive test. Which resulted in many league decision-makers questioning his judgement. Those that questioned it had probably never experienced migraines or pot. Few in the NFL had questions about Harvin's football skills. Everyone had questions about Harvin's judgement, health, and attitude. Since high school, trouble seemed to find him. All of these questions were enough for Vikings head coach Brad Childress to spend a day with Harvin just days before the draft. That visit was promising enough for the Vikings to pull the trigger in the first round. Everything was just great early in the team-player relationship. Percy Harvin was a big part of an explosive offense led by Brett Favre. Adrian Peterson, Chester Taylor, Sidney Rice, Bernard Berrian, Visanthe Shiancoe. The Vikings were loaded with playmakers. Harvin was a luxury. A wildcard. He could do a little bit of everything. A lot of receivers have lined up in the backfield as a gimmick. Harvin was a serious threat out of the backfield. Reverses, bubble screens, returns. Harvin wasn't just a receiver. He was an offensive dynamo. A defensive nightmare. Off the football field, there was no mention that he was a problem. As a rookie, he was probably on his best behavior. It had to help that there was a strong veteran presence on the team with Favre, Peterson, Steve Hutchinson, Pat Williams, Kevin Williams, EJ Henderson, and Antoine Winfield. Winning also helps and the 2009 Minnesota Vikings won. Nearly everything went their way until the NFC Championship game. 2009 was the high point of the Childress era and the fall from that point was immediate. The 2010 season was a disaster. Childress didn't even make it to the end of the season. Even during the good times of the 2009 season, it was clear that Harvin could be a little feisty. It was easy to like some of that. Football is a physical, passionate game. Fans love it when players show that passion. Emotions can run raw on the field but most players handle it. It was apparent that that the kid didn't handle his emotions as well as most. He was very quick to retaliate at any perceived slight. Rumors of Harvin being something of a handful off of the field started to pop up during the 2010 season. The honeymoon was over. The disaster of 2010 was followed by the disaster of 2011. Instead of the old Favre leading the team, the Vikings had a disinterested Donovan McNabb and rookie Christian Ponder leading the team. It's been rumored that Ponder was the main problem in Harvin's list of problems during three of his four years with the Vikings. Who knows? With Ponder throwing the ball, Harvin started the 2012 season on a torrid pace. Peterson was coming back from a torn ACL and the Vikings offense leaned on Harvin early in the season. The receiver was in the ridiculous early season MVP conversation. All of that ended when Harvin injured his ankle in game nine against the Seahawks. He didn't play again that season. There was some talk that he'd come back but he was finally put on ice. The back-and-forth about his potential return felt odd. It felt like there was more to the drama. In his six years in the league Harvin has shown that he can be a pain when he is on the field. He's even more of a pain when he's not on the field. Whatever happened with Harvin in the last months of the 2012 season, when he never saw the field, ended his Vikings career. They were moving him as soon as they could and they found an eager taker in the Seattle Seahawks. The most interesting thing about the transaction was that the Seahawks offensive coordinator was, and still is, Darrell Bevel. He was the Vikings offensive coordinator through the 2010 season. He may not have seen the worst of Harvin but he knew the potential for it. He also knew the potential of Harvin in his offense with Russell Wilson and Marshawn Lynch. That potential was very scary. Everyone was happy in Seattle in 2013 just like everyone was happy in Minnesota in 2009. The Seahawks 2013 season was one game better than the Vikings 2009 season. But, Harvin rarely played. He had an offseason hip injury and missed nearly all of the regular season. The only game that he played was against the Vikings. He had to be in that game. He aggravated the injury in that game and was on the sideline again. He was back for the playoffs and especially the Super Bowl. He might have even been the MVP of that Super Bowl. Despite the great team success, Harvin was apparently a pain. Big surprise. He can be a pain when he's playing. He can be an even greater pain when he isn't playing and he played very little in 2013. He apparently fought with fellow receiver Golden Tate before the Super Bowl. Tate was sporting a black eye during Super Bowl week. He apparently fought with fellow receiver Doug Baldwin this past preseason. Usually when we hear about fights between teammates it's offense against defense. It's rarely between players from the same unit. Harvin isn't your typical player and the Seahawks have decided that they no longer want any part of him. They gave him away. Now, he's the New York Jets problem and a real challenge for Rex Ryan.

Percy Harvin is a real piece of work. He is one of the most dangerous football players to ever play the game but he's on the fast track to becoming little more than a footnote. A great football player that never will be great because he couldn't get out of his own way. Another player that just trashed his career. He's played for three head coaches and heading to his fourth. He started with Brad Childress. A good football coach but a difficult coach in even the best of times. Then there was Leslie Frazier. A former player and easy-going. A player's coach and a man than many consider the nicest man that they have ever met. Pete Carroll seems to be loved by every player that has ever played for him. A coach that can deal with every character that comes in the shape of a football player. Three very different coaches and not one of them could keep Percy Harvin happy. Rex Ryan is more like Carroll than Childress or Frazier. The guess here is that Ryan won't fare any better. The problem is Harvin and he doesn't see the problem that he is.