WOW!!! Percy Harvin, who the Seattle Seahawks thought highly enough of to give the Minnesota Vikings 3 draft picks for, is now a New York Jet. This might be the most shocking Seattle sports trade since the Gary Payton-Ray Allen swap back in 2003. At this point I don’t know what to say or what story to believe but I will remind everyone the Seahawks made it to Super Bowl XLVIII without Harvin. He hasn’t really fit into Seattle’s offense this season and I was getting sick of all the jet sweeps and screen passes which were largely ineffective. It was also rumored he was starting to become a locker room cancer and went to the coaches and asked for more touches. Doug Baldwin’s rant after the loss to the Cowboys, which I thought was directed at Darrell Bevell, was actually about Harvin. I also found it surprising when he wasn’t in the game down the stretch against Dallas and was just standing on the sidelines. Either he didn’t want to go into the game and do what Coach Carroll asked of him or the Seahawks coaching staff just said F it and left him on the sidelines on purpose. I give the Paul Allen major credit for having the guts to let Schneider/Carroll trade him midseason and only receive a mid-round pick in return. Most owners would shoot the deal down and tell the coach to work through it and make it work. I also give Carroll credit for realizing Harvin was starting to mess up the locker room chemistry and he nipped this problem in the bud before it became a major issue.

Most of this stuff is coming out now but I guess Percy Harvin has some major anger management issues. Back during his college days at University of Florida where he refused to run the stairs with teammates during off-season conditioning in 2007, he also failed a drug test and missed the 2008 season opener. The problems followed him from Florida to the NFL and the Minnesota Vikings. It’s been reported Harvin was upset with Vikings management after they attempted to sign another big named free agent wide receiver because Harvin wanted a big money contract extension. He and then coach Brad Childress almost came to blows during a practice back in 2010 due to Childress questioning Harvin’s effort. Despite all of these issues the Seattle Seahawks still went ahead and traded 3 draft picks (2013 1st and 7th round, 2014 3rd round) to the Minnesota Vikings and gave Harvin a 6 year / $64.25 million contract with a $12,000,000 signing bonus, $14,500,000 guaranteed and an average yearly salary of $10,707,500, per spotrac. His Seahawks career didn’t start out very well due to a slight labrum tear in his hip which happened during off-season workouts and kept him from making his Seattle debut until Week 11 against his former team, the Minnesota Vikings. He played OK, making 1 spectacular catch for 17 yards and returning a kickoff for 58 yards. He missed the next 6 games due to inflammation in his hip but came back for Seattle’s divisional round matchup with the New Orleans Saints. A couple of questionable hits by Saints defenders knocked Harvin out of the game before halftime, he went on to miss the NFC Championship game against the San Francisco 49ers. The 12th man only had one chance to see the Harvin effect during the 2013 season and that was his sensational kickoff return for a touchdown to open the 2nd half of Super Bowl XLVIII. There have been unconfirmed reports that Percy Harvin gave Golden Tate this black eye at some point leading up to Super Bowl XLVIII. There are also unconfirmed reports about Harvin getting into a scuffle with Doug Baldwin prior to the Week 4 preseason game.

I’m sure the Seattle Seahawks did their due diligence and made sure to check out Percy Harvin’s off the field issues before they surrendered so many assets. They must have felt the leaders on this team could keep Harvin in line but it backfired spectacularly. In the end he only played a total of 8 games for Seattle and cost them around $2.5 million per game. This deal is clearly the worst of the Carroll-Schneider era, a combination of injuries and not knowing the right way to use Harvin in the offense led to this deal being a complete bust. I’m hoping this failed deal does not dissuade the Hawks management from ever making a deal of this magnitude again. When Seattle made this trade I was ecstatic because Harvin has a massive amount of talent and I thought he would push this offense to the next level. I truly thought this was the right move to get them over the hump and win a Super Bowl. In the end this was a good move by the Seahawks and they needed to get him away from this team before the whole situation became combustible. They didn’t receive anywhere near what they paid for him but at least it is something, reportedly either a 4th or 6th round pick in 2015. My hope now is Carroll got the locker room right and brought back the amazing chemistry this team showed last season. I also hope Bevell will go back to the ground and pound type of offense they ran last season and give Lynch the damn ball. The Seahawks still have a ton of injury depth issues but at least the chemistry shouldn’t be an issue anymore. I wish Percy Harvin and his anger issues all the best in New York and I wished it would have worked here but that is how it goes sometimes. Let us not forget “there’s no I in team”.