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Harvin must show he can stay healthy
By Brian Steele ,Steele-ing Bases
Dear Percy,
Sweet mercy, didn’t you take your Flintstone Vitamins as a child? Honestly, I feel for you. Your body hasn’t held up its end of the bargain since you’ve been here: Migraines, your ankles, your neck sprain, a hip pointer, tendonitis in your knee and most recently your heels.
It’s not fair, really. And people criticize you for being a cancer on every team you’ve been on. There’s a reason you weren’t voted as a team captain. You’re not a leader. You know that. Urban knows that. All of your teammates know that. But that doesn’t make you a bad guy.
Sweet mercy, didn’t you take your Flintstone Vitamins as a child? Honestly, I feel for you. Your body hasn’t held up its end of the bargain since you’ve been here: Migraines, your ankles, your neck sprain, a hip pointer, tendonitis in your knee and most recently your heels.
It’s not fair, really. And people criticize you for being a cancer on every team you’ve been on. There’s a reason you weren’t voted as a team captain. You’re not a leader. You know that. Urban knows that. All of your teammates know that. But that doesn’t make you a bad guy.
Sure, there was a scrap between you and Chris Rainey during practice, but if you were James Smith (he’s the long snapper, by the way) instead of Percy Harvin, nobody would’ve cared.
To pretend like every player adores every other player is akin to saying Ohio State would keep a championship game close. It’s just silly.
I wish people would lay off you and actually talk to you before they say your attitude is a detriment. It isn’t a plus, but your attitude isn’t going to keep this team from making a BCS bowl.
What’s going to make the difference is whether your heel finally stops doing whatever it’s doing. I’d get into more specifics, but that’s about all we know. I know practice isn’t your thing. You’re one of the most athletically blessed individuals in the country, and you have the unique ability to turn it on whenever you want. Unfortunately for you, the NFL scouts aren’t going to see it that way.
Sitting it out and taking it easy is no longer an option for you. If you keep this up, it could be the difference between a top-10 NFL Draft pick and barely slipping into the first round. NFL teams aren’t going to waste millions on you if they think you’ll only show up on Sundays.
You need to take a hard hit, and then force your body up to take a slow jog back to the huddle. It won’t be your shining moment, but it will be the moment teams realize you’re capable of playing for more than half a season.
Forget running the ball, too. If people don’t know you’re gifted with the ball, then they need to stop staring at Tim Tebow every play.
Instead, you need to be right there laying your body down for a block against the clueless defensive back when Rainey or Emmanuel Moody darts to the outside.
Percy, you deserve props for going through all that you’ve gone through healthwise. It’s more than most do. The thing is, however, you have the ability to be an outstanding athlete, and you have to do more than what you’ve been doing to accomplish that.
Get out on the field. Play through pain. Become a complete receiver. Go to the NFL.
If you want to take the couple million guaranteed dollars and then be done, go ahead. We’re blessed enough to live in a country where that’s allowed. If you have plans on doing more, well, get to work. That’s something you’re going to have to start doing more of no matter how your body feels.
Sincerely,
Brian
To pretend like every player adores every other player is akin to saying Ohio State would keep a championship game close. It’s just silly.
I wish people would lay off you and actually talk to you before they say your attitude is a detriment. It isn’t a plus, but your attitude isn’t going to keep this team from making a BCS bowl.
What’s going to make the difference is whether your heel finally stops doing whatever it’s doing. I’d get into more specifics, but that’s about all we know. I know practice isn’t your thing. You’re one of the most athletically blessed individuals in the country, and you have the unique ability to turn it on whenever you want. Unfortunately for you, the NFL scouts aren’t going to see it that way.
Sitting it out and taking it easy is no longer an option for you. If you keep this up, it could be the difference between a top-10 NFL Draft pick and barely slipping into the first round. NFL teams aren’t going to waste millions on you if they think you’ll only show up on Sundays.
You need to take a hard hit, and then force your body up to take a slow jog back to the huddle. It won’t be your shining moment, but it will be the moment teams realize you’re capable of playing for more than half a season.
Forget running the ball, too. If people don’t know you’re gifted with the ball, then they need to stop staring at Tim Tebow every play.
Instead, you need to be right there laying your body down for a block against the clueless defensive back when Rainey or Emmanuel Moody darts to the outside.
Percy, you deserve props for going through all that you’ve gone through healthwise. It’s more than most do. The thing is, however, you have the ability to be an outstanding athlete, and you have to do more than what you’ve been doing to accomplish that.
Get out on the field. Play through pain. Become a complete receiver. Go to the NFL.
If you want to take the couple million guaranteed dollars and then be done, go ahead. We’re blessed enough to live in a country where that’s allowed. If you have plans on doing more, well, get to work. That’s something you’re going to have to start doing more of no matter how your body feels.
Sincerely,
Brian
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July 2nd, 2009 CorrectionThe UF-Georgia football game is held annually at the Jacksonville Municipal Stadium. The contract for the game is between UF and the city of Jacksonville. An article in Tuesday’s paper stated otherwise. |
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flalitig8r wrote on Aug 25, 2008 4:01 PM:
I realize you are just a student journalist, so I won't blast you as if you were Pat Dooley writing that article about Percy. I'll just make it constructive criticism. If you think Percy Harvin needs to get tougher, you haven't been watching him play football for the University of Florida. No one plays harder and dusts themselves off faster than Percy. Percy has practiced every day that the doctors have cleared him and no one dusts themselves off faster after a huge hit than Percy Harvin.
The next time you need an idea for an article, do some research and watch some tape. Don't take an article about Alan Iverson and cut and paste Percy Harvin's name into it. I mean seriously, this article is so bad, it reads like an article for the Onion. I honestly thought it was a satire the first time I read it.
I take back what I said. I am going to slam you. This article was clearly written from the perspective of a pencil necked geek. The only contact you have probably ever taken is the result of being slammed into a locker while you nervously scampered through your high school hall ways. This was nothing but cheap shots and baseless, uninformed commentary. They need to get you off the editorial assignment and assign you something you can handle. Maybe you can cover the first spades tournament of the year at the Reitz Union. "