Spielman Discusses Harvin

Vikings VP of player personnel Rick Spielman, in an appearance on KFAN, talked extensively about the upcoming draft, and specifically about Percy Harvin, a player many believe the Vikings should and will take with their #22 overall selection.  Spielman began by calling Harvin a “good football player,” but also pointed out his “durability issues” while playing at Florida.  And then he moved on to those other, more menacing issues facing Harvin – namely the stories circulating about his having failed a drug test. “There are some rumors going around now about [him] potentially being dirty at the combine, so we’re going through all that,” Spielman said.  Of course, all teams conduct their own inquiries into players they may want to draft (except the Bengals who don’t really seem to worry about that sort of stuff).  As Spielman explained:

"Regardless who it is and who we bring into this organization, the one thing I know that we will do, we will drill down as deep as we can and any issues that pop up we are going to go through our psychologists, we’re going to talk to the coaches, we’re going to talk to [people] all the way back to his high school."

Evidently the Vikings have been very busy red flagging guys:  Judd Zulgad of the Star-Trib says as many as 78 players have been removed from the team’s draft board over physical or character issues.  Naturally, no one is revealing the actual names of those 78 players.  Going by Spielman’s remarks, it would seem that Harvin at least is still in the running.  But then again, we know how crafty teams are in covering themselves.  It could be that Spielman only wants us to think Harvin is still on the board.  It could be that, even as we speak, Spielman is on his shoe phone talking to Brad Childress, who is lurking around in his Inspector Gadget coat.  While Zygi Wilf and Penfold relax inside the Mayfair pillar-box.