RENTON — The Seattle Seahawks didn’t give away wide receiver Percy Harvin for a ham sandwich — sorry, a conditional sixth-round pick — because he couldn’t play football.
Harvin, who was traded to the New York Jets 19 months after the Seahawks gave up first-, third- and seventh-round picks for him, is still one of the most talented players in the NFL. So clearly, off-the-field issues contributed to Seattle’s decision to cut ties with him.
Many of those issues — from fights with Doug Baldwin and Golden Tate to Harvin’s refusal to play down the stretch against Dallas — have been reported and repeatedly confirmed, either by the parties involved or by league sources.
But one alleged issue mentioned recently in media reports was denied Tuesday.
“Percy and I never had differences,” Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson said. “We had a lot of similarities, probably if anything. We’re guys who want to compete at the highest level, want to win every single time we step on the field, want the ball in our hands to make the big play and everything.
“I’m not sure why the media chose to blow everything out of proportion. It’s part of it, I guess. You have to deal with it, but you also have to ignore it, too. Like I always tell you guys, I ignore the noise. Percy’s a Virginia guy and I wish nothing but the best for him.”
Wilson was asked about his relationship with Harvin because there have been reports, the most detailed of which came from Bleacher Report’s Mike Freeman on Wednesday, alleging there was a growing rift between Harvin and Wilson. According to Freeman’s report, a Harvin-Wilson divide was forming in Seattle’s locker room, which was significant reason behind the trade.
“There’s no division in our locker room, there’s none at all,” Wilson said. “If anything I think we’ve continued to build, continued to grow. I truly believe that. The guys that we have in the locker room, the guys who believe we can still go 1-0 and still be a championship team, those are the guys we have sitting in this room every day. Every morning when we wake up, we’re looking for one common goal, that’s to win football games.”
It’s worth remembering that in the case of a breakup like this one between Harvin and the Seahawks, there are going to be differing views on what happened and who’s to blame. It benefits the Seahawks if Harvin looks like the problem, while Harvin’s camp would prefer to paint a picture in which he was a good teammate who became the scapegoat for a suddenly struggling team. So anything you read or hear should be taken with a grain of salt. After all, if Wilson did have a problem with Harvin, would he really go on record to make that public? Not likely.
And Wilson wasn’t alone in denying any reports of a divided locker room. Safety Earl Thomas said he isn’t bothered by such reports because those reposnible for the reports aren’t in a position to know.
“They’re not here, they don’t know,” Thomas said. “Unless you heard that from a player that’s here, I can’t really. … I think this team is in the right direction.”
Safety Kam Chancellor said he wasn’t aware of any reports of a feuding team, but added, “If it has come up, it is ridiculous, because I haven’t been aware of that.”
One point Thomas made is that a healthy team room doesn’t mean the Seahawks have the same locker-room dynamic as they did a year ago.
“It’s just different personalities,” he said. “It’s new people, it’s not the same team, but you adapt. That’s what leaders do, that’s what great teams do. We’re going to come together. … … Some people are used to certain habits from other teams, and we do stuff differently over ere. It’s our job not to let that stuff affect us, whatever that is.”
No one is pretending that everyone on the team is best friends. As Doug Baldwin noted a day earlier:
“We’re in a locker room where you spend 12 to 14 hours with these guys every day. So of course there’s going to be issues, you’re not going to all get along. You’re not going to agree about everything, so you’re going to have issues.”
There’s a difference between people having issues with each other and a poisonous environment that can cause a team to fall apart. After all, Harvin and Tate had a physical altercation the day before the Super Bowl, and Seattle still went out and drubbed the Broncos. But clearly something bigger was going on with Harvin for the Seahawks to make the surprising decision they came to last week.
Wilson, however, isn’t going to go down that road. He, like the Seahawks, has moved on from Harvin.
“That’s for the front office to decide,” Wilson said. “I don’t know much about it to be honest with you. At the end of the day, I believe Percy’s going to do a great job (in New York). Like I’ve said, he’s a great football player. For whatever reason it didn’t work here, but I know he’ll do a great job, and I know we’re excited about the guys we have, too.”
Injury update
The Seahawks’ already long list of injuries grew by two on Thursday, with Michael Bennett (toe) and Bryan Walters (concussion), both sitting out. Pete Carroll does not talk to the media Thursday, so updates will have to wait until Friday. If Walters, who is Seattle’s primary kick and punt returner, can’t go, the return game will be a question mark in Sunday’s game. Doug Baldwin is listed as the backup at both spots, though Earl Thomas has returned punts this year, and several others have occasionally done it in practice, including Richard Sherman and Paul Richardson. Both Robert Turbin and Jermaine Kearse have some kick returning experience as well.
In more positive news, safety Kam Chancellor did return to practice after sitting out with an ankle injury Wednesday, and running back Robert Turbin went from limited to full participation with a shoulder injury. Max Unger (foot), Bobby Wagner (toe), Byron Maxwell (calf) and Jordan Hill (ankle) all sat out for a second straight day.
Herald Writer John Boyle: jboyle@heraldnet.com
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