In October of last year an ESPN writer said Percy Harvin was “someone else’s problem” after he was traded by the Seahawks to the New York Jets.
Harvin wasn’t re-signed by the Jets and he ultimately wound up signing with the Buffalo Bills. But his checkered past of being unruly with teammates and coaches, most recently in Seattle with fellow wide receivers Golden Tate and Doug Baldwin, earned him the reputation from Sports Illustrated as the “most hated player in the locker room” in the entire NFL.
“In his first season in Seattle, Harvin got into altercations with teammates Doug Baldwin and Golden Tate. The kicker was Harvin’s refusal to play late in Seattle’s 2014 Week 6 loss to the Cowboys—allegedly because he was unhappy with how he was used. Seattle traded him to the Jets shortly after, and there weren’t a lot of unhappy folks in the Seahawks’ locker room when that happened. Now with theBills (where he’s reunited with Rex Ryan, his coach when he was on the Jets), Harvin still insists that he’s more than a gadget player. The proof on the field says otherwise.”
Seattle dumped him for almost nothing – a mid-round draft pick – because he was a problem in the locker room. On March 12, 2013, the Vikings did the same by trading him to Seattle for draft picks that resulted in Xavier Rhodes, Travis Bond and Jerick McKinnon.
Rhodes seems to be developing into one of the premier cornerbacks in the NFL and McKinnon played well as a rookie. Bond was cut, but the haul the Vikings got for Harvin was a clear win.
Harvin created more than 1,300 yards of offense with the Vikings in 2011 but, as Roto Baller points out, he’s regressed significantly ever since. He got off to a fantastic start in 2012 before injuries cut his season short; he’s played in only 23 games since the start of the 2012 season.
