Percy Harvin apparently not so fast above the shoulders
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Former Florida star Percy Harvin is giving dumb jocks a bad name.
Two sources have confirmed to Fox Sports that the speedy wide receiver failed a drug test at the NFL combine -- for smoking pot. He clearly doesn’t understand what it means to be a high draft pick.
This news comes days after former USC quarterback Todd Marinovich revealed that he shot heroin during halftime of a game in the Canadian Football League. He even broke his pipe, lacerated his left thumb and missed the second-half kickoff while bandaging his hand. Another time, he was going through withdrawals so badly that he defecated all over himself before a game. He got away with both incidents.
Harvin allegedly failed a drug test that he knew was coming years before he had to take it, with a drug so easy to avoid detection that websites sell ‘cleansing’ products with a 100% money-back guarantee. With millions of dollars and a first-round draft pick on the line, how stupid do you have to be to fail?
Apparently, Harvin bombed another test during the same week. His reported Wonderlic score was 12 out of 50. NFL players average 20, and the general population averages 24.
The NFL draft is this weekend and the spotlight is on all the top players. One of the biggest knocks on Harvin was that, in the Gator system, he would just go on basic post patterns and simply outrun his defender(s). With faster athletes in the NFL, his success will depend on learning more complicated routes and systems. That’s a little harder than preparing to pee in a cup.
Fox is reporting that North Carolina wide receiver Brandon Tate was the only other high-profile player to fail the test (also for weed). Earlier, Sports Illustrated reported that Boston College defensive tackle B.J. Raji tested positive for marijuana, but that story was retracted.
NFLDraftBible.com reported Harvin’s failed test several weeks ago. At least it seems to have nailed one story. The site also said that Raji had failed and that USC linebackers Brian Cushing and Clay Matthews tested positive for steroids. Both Cushing and Matthews were later cleared by NFL officials.
-- Adam Rose