He did what?

They were right there in front me; and I couldn’t help myself but soak in the moment. The post-combine Mock Drafts were out and they all had Percy Harvin in the top half of the draft, some pundits were even arguing he could go top 10. Percy was going to be the player that would forever banish the bias against the University of Florida wide receivers. The bias that started with wideouts that played under Spurrier and continued to be held against the players that have played under Meyer. But Percy was different. Percy would find a crack in the theory and expose it, like he had done so many times to opposing defenses. He would be the guy that the Florida coaching staff would point to as the example of wide receivers they put into the League.

Scouts had seen the combination of size, speed and power and were in awe. They watched the tape and saw what Gary Danielson once called the best release from the line of scrimmage he had ever seen in college football. They saw him glide into the endzone time after time against the best defenses in college football and had visions of Percy doing the same in their uniform.

They spoke with Urban Meyer, he of the 2 National Championships and the trust of Bill Belichick, and they heard that Percy’s will to win was unrivaled. They heard that he was a great teammate from the ultimate teammate, Tim Tebow. Sure there were concerns about injuries, but Percy had had that surgery to correct the foot problem and said he finally felt healthy. You could see it in their eyes – the scouts were thinking he had done all that he had done and didn’t feel healthy? Imagine what he could do for us now that he felt 100%!

Then as quickly as the dream appeared it began to disappear. Within a few weeks of the combine, it was reported that Percy had scored a 12 on the Wonderlic Test. Thankfully though, I reasoned, the League will forgive a low test score when the talent is great. There are a long line of players that have done poorly on the Wonderlic that ended up succeeding in the League I said. I reasoned Dan Marino scored a 15 and he was a pretty good pro.

While my own reasoning calmed me, everyone else wasn’t so easily dissuaded from concern. The pundits began to pencil in Percy’s name in the 20s. My initial reaction was that of shock and disbelief. How could someone who was arguably the best skill position player at the University of Florida drop into the lower half of the first round I wondered aloud. And then I started to see the teams that they were projecting him to and realized that maybe, just maybe, dropping into the lower half of the first round would hasten the banishment of the bias. If Percy could catch passes from Ryan, Flacco or Manning wouldn’t that help the cause more than being stuck with Russell, Girard or whoever is the quarterback for the Jets? Yes, this will work out just fine, I told myself. I could see it in my mind’s eye, there were the pundits talking about the 2011 draft, saying that Deonte Thompson, from the University of Florida and in the mold of former first rounder and current Atlanta Falcon Percy Harvin, will be one of the first receivers taken in the draft. I was at ease with this scenario. Sure it might cost Percy a little money, but wouldn’t it be worth it for the good of the next group of players? Percy’s last gift to the University of Florida, as if the two National Championships weren't enough.

While I basked in the idea of Percy playing for a better team, a better quarterback, reporters at SI.com and NFLdraftbible.com were compiling a list of players that supposedly had failed the combine drug test. Reports began to surface that there were some “big names” on the failed list. I wondered aloud to my friends, who could possibly be dumb enough to smoke pot before the combine? The players know that they are going to be tested right, I asked.

A friend once told me be careful of the questions you ask because someone might just answer them.

The initial leaked list of names (remember the drug test results are supposed to confidential), included Clay Matthews, Jr., Brian Cushing, B.J. Raji, Vontae Davis, and our own Percy Harvin. No, no this couldn’t be. Not Percy. One by one the players and their representatives began proclaiming their innocence. I found it odd that neither Percy, nor his agent, were publicly voicing Percy’s innocence, but I figured why argue when all it is is a rumor?

Time passed and as it turned out more and more names were crossed off the “failed” list. First Matthews, then Cushing, then Davis, then Raji. I figured it was just a matter of time before our beloved Percy would have his name cleared too. All would be fine and Percy could banish the bias.

Unfortunately it was all just a dream. For some unknown reason, Percy did, in fact, fail his drug test at the combine. And while the above was written tongue-in-cheek (personally I don’t care if anyone smokes pot), there is some truth to it. Percy was in the unique position to be Meyer’s first recruited player to be drafted in the first round. That is all but a pipe dream now, excuse the pun. The NFL has become intolerant to off-field-issues over the past 3 years or so, ask Pacman and Mike Vick. There is so much money involved in a first round draft choice that picking a player that will have one strike against him – which Percy will – in the first round just isn’t smart business and can be career suicide. In all likelihood Percy will be drafted in the first half of the 2nd round (although it is possible he slips even further); and while he probably cost himself millions of dollars he should also have a fine NFL career.

All of this just has me wondering – what in the world was he thinking?