7 Days of Draftsmas: More on Percy Harvin
By Dan Zinski
Percy Harvin is the man of the hour in Vikingland. Sunday, the newest cog in the KAO was introduced to the Twin Cities media, who immediately began throwing questions at him about his character, and all the recent scrutiny of same. Harvin assured everyone that he didn’t sweat all the negative press, and said this about the issues he had with authority in his younger days:
"I think a lot of it was me not knowing how to handle things. A lot of times I was wrong. Some of the times I was right. But the times I was right I didn’t know how to sit down and kind of express myself. I kind of would blow up and the next thing you know it turns into disrespect and all that when I was just trying to get my point across. Just growing up I’ve learned how to sit down and talk things out and a lot of my problems were little things that started off as something minor but it was me blowing up, just being so defensive. A lot of it was wrong, some of it was right. But I’ve grown from all that and I look forward to moving on."
Video of the press conference is available on Vikings.com. Percy smiles a lot and handles himself well, but seems nervous, and manages to insert more “uhs” into each sentence even than the master of the “uh,” Brad Childress.
Naturally, all the talk about Harvin in the wake of his drafting is not of the happy variety. Here’s something a source told Mike Florio about the newest Viking receiver:
"They’re glad that Harvin is gone at Florida. He wore out his welcome down there, but they’ll be the first people to tell you that the guy can flat-out play."
“They” may have been sick of him at Florida, but his old head coach there, Urban Meyer, was still willing to go to bat for the kid publicly. Meyer said this of Harvin’s issues:
"He’s an extremist as far as a competitor. He does not take losing very well, which is a good thing. Obviously, you got to harness that energy, and refocus it to just get better, and he learned that as he grew up through our program."
Meyer assured Viking fans that “everything is controllable” with Harvin. How? Through drugs? Therapy? Spanking? Sorry but that word “controllable” gives me a nervous feeling in my stomach. Makes me think of angry dogs or unruly kids. Or Lindsay Lohan.