HawkWow":1lngv4e0 said:
I think one thing that seems to be consistently overlooked in the Richardson pick comes down to the concept that was Percy Harvin. IF you believe scuttlebutt (in this example I do) Harvin instantly alienated Pete and the FO by electing to have the surgery. There are some that believe Harvin, before ever taking a snap, was already trade bait. This is very easy to believe and understand, actually. Think back to Pete's many comments on both the surgery and Harvin himself. Remember what it took to get Harvin back on the field after his brief, self-centered Viking appearance. Harvin was egg on the face of this org. Rightfully so.
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Prior to that, you have to know the mad professor that is Pete spent many hrs with Bevell starting minutes after Harvin was signed. It also appears they wanted to move away from Marshawn, so they brainstormed plays that would feature Harvin and reduce the need for Lynch. Then *&*^%&^ Harvin found a surgeon to say he needed the hip NOW. The majority of the year, Bevell had a playbook designed for Harvin but no Harvin. To make matters worse, Michael sucked and Lynch snickered.
What a great post, relative to the Harvin info. I have come to believe that Percy Harvin checks box after box for the mental health issue, "Borderline Personality Disorder" (BPD), including the petulant toddler rage part of it, and the "it's everybody else who's the problem, I'm the normal one" part of it. The toddler rage shows up in publicized incidents with his coaches over the years, and we've seen the "it's everyone else who's the problem" up close and personal this year. Harvin's flavor of BPD also appears to include a large helping of Antisocial Personality Disorder, i.e., having no real conscience or empathy for others, when it interferes with their own goals.
I recall Pete questioning Harvin's surgeries, and thought at the time, it seemed odd for a coach to say those things. Your account makes absolute sense, particularly in the context of a Harvin with BPD. Some of the things Borderlines do, are 1) a BPD will rearrange facts, data, and sequences of events in their head, "to match their emotions"*, and 2) they also make others responsible for whatever (negative) emotions the BPD feels, and then the BPD uses those emotions as justification for actions the BPD takes that harm others.
In Percy's case, following the BPD playbook, (and they DO have a playbook, little tried-and-true mini-scams they run on others again and again throughout their lives), and here's how it might play out in Percy's head. After he got signed by Seattle, and since he felt like he'd rather not take more hits, and just get paid, for all his past unmatched brilliance (BPDs are like peas in a pod with Narcissists), he invented a feeling that his hip was just not right, and rearranged things in his head to match those emotions, and pursued this until he found (paid?) a specialist to say what he wanted, that his hip was 93% instead of 100%, and that surgery to get the hip to 97% was an urgent imperative. (I'm making these numbers up, of course).
Percy no doubt felt butthurt by the things Pete said about his absence for surgery, which justified him malingering and milking the rehab from whatever surgery it was that he had, as petulant retribution.
But of course, coming back for the Vikings game was an emotional must, to show those evil people how awful and wrong they were for not just betting the farm on Percy and his magnificence. When BPDs emotionally "want" to do something, they arrange facts and data to support their chosen course of action.
It's really quite twisted and sick, and hard for normal people to believe others think and behave this way. BPDs know this, and are very clever, and go to great lengths to conceal their illness from people around them. Their true colors typically show when they are in a position of power.
I'm sure you're right that Pete started to figure it out over the surgery issue, and started to hedge his bets then, although I don't think he realized the depth of the problem and how difficult (impossible) it would be to "fix" such an individual, especially when the BPD is sure they are fine and it's everyone else who is the problem.
BTW, Brandon Marshall of the Chicago Bears is the only publicly acknowledged BPD in the league. But the mere fact of publicly acknowledging it and seeking help puts him several leagues above Percy.
So, Harvin will go to the new team (Jets) and behave for a time, to try to make it look like he was (is) fine all along, and the problem was in the organization he came from. (It's a part of the BPD playbook) I suspect the Jets organization was fully briefed by the Seattle organization about the exact nature of Percy's problems (hence the 6th round pick), and the Jets probably have a plan in place. I don't see any way Percy can be successful after this season unless he either goes the Brandon Marshall route of "outing" himself, or the Jets (or other organization) have him under a contract that has strict and specific accountability provisions that address his clear mental illness issues. My belief that Percy has BPD + APD is a hypothesis; the specifics for him may be different, but the BPD + APD model successfully explains his history and recent behavior. As they say, all models are wrong, but some are useful. There are BPDs who do not seem to feature the APD like Percy does; those BPDs are often "cutters" (self-mutilation) in private. Those with BPD+APD, like the model that fits Percy, tend to do things that are directed outward, AT others, and often do significant harm. Things like, in a fit of rage, grabbing position coaches by the neck and throwing them to the ground, or punching teammates in the face the night before a big game;
* This ability to rearrange facts in their head to match their emotions makes BPDs extremely convincing liars, to the unaware. They can lie with 100% nonverbal congruence with their lies, including tears on cue. They literally make themselves come to believe their own lies. It's deadly if you are on the other side of it in a court setting, e.g., divorce court.
