7 Days of Draftsmas: The Harvin Sell-Job Begins

Percy Harvin has been selected by the Minnesota Vikings, so now the sell-job may begin in earnest.  The first pitch was made Saturday in the immediate wake of the pick, by Rick Spielman, who said:

"We’re excited to have such an explosive playmaker, and felt he was a top-10 pick.We did our due diligence, and talked to [Vikings owners] Mark and Zygi [Wilf]."

Translation:  Randy Moss was a top 10 talent too, and he fell to the Vikings because of character issues, and look how that turned out.  Yes, I think Childress and Spielman believe Harvin is their Randy Moss, a game-changing talent.  I don’t know if I agree with that assessment, but we’ll see.

The thing that amused me was Spielman making a point of emphasizing that the Wilfs signed off on the pick.  To me that’s like saying, “If this kid goes bust on us, don’t just blame me.  It was everyone’s decision.”  It’s never too early to start covering your ass.

Another big part of the sell-job is making Harvin himself available to the media, so everyone can see what a good-hearted kid he is.  That began Saturday too, with a conference call in which Harvin recalled coach Brad Childress‘s well-publicized trip to meet him and his family in Florida.  Here’s Harvin on his and his family’s new relationship with Chilly:

"We thought the world of him, like I said it goes back to as far as the top 10 or top 15; we were waiting for the 22nd pick.  We knew that the pressure wouldn’t be so much with [Adrian] Peterson and Bernard Berrian and the coach. We had so much of a good relationship we were texting throughout the whole thing. The visit we had here wasn’t sit down and talk football. We told stories, we laughed, we giggled, we played around. Like I said, I had a lot of faith that the number 22 pick was where I was going to land the whole time."

Pure happy-talk, but completely expected.  We’ll see how much Harvin and his family think of Chilly after the first time Chilly has to discipline the kid for something.  And I sincerely hope that, among the subjects discussed by Chilly and Mr. Harvin, was drug testing and how if you’re gonna smoke your weed you need to flush that from your system as fast as possible.  I’m sure the other players will have plenty of advice for Harvin on how to get his pee nice and clean.  Maybe Onterrio Smith left a Whizzinator around somewhere.