It didn’t take long for Percy Harvin to make an impact with the Minnesota Vikings. After the team drafted him in 2009, he became the second member of the team in a three-year stretch to be named Offensive Rookie of the Year (joining Adrian Peterson in 2007). During the four years he was with the Vikings, he was one of the league’s most dynamic players, scoring 29 touchdowns. . .20 through the air, four on the ground, and five in the return game. Unfortunately, he had a pretty ugly falling out with the team which, reportedly, included throwing weights at coaches and screaming at head coach Leslie Frazier. The Vikings eventually traded him to the Seattle Seahawks for multiple draft picks, including the first-round selection that became cornerback Xavier Rhodes, and Harvin never really recaptured the spark that made him such a special player in Minnesota. In an interview with Sports Illustrated, Harvin is opening up for the first time about a bunch of subjects, including an anxiety disorder that was largely the cause of the migraine headaches that plagued Harvin throughout his career. “The best way I can describe it is that I felt ‘out of body,’” he says of a typical episode. “My heart would be going, I’d be sweating, I felt like everybody in the room was looking at me. My speech was slurring. I didn’t wanna eat. I was gasping for air. You’re so worked up that it’s hard to spit words out.” Inspired by NBA stars Kevin Love and DeMar DeRozan, who have spoken out recently about their anxiety issues, Harvin wants to join them in saying, It’s O.K. to be not O.K. The interview is certainly worth your time to read. There’s a snippet of a video interview with Harvin at the story linked above, and that’s also a part of an SI TV “Where Are They Now” series that you can find on Amazon. I know that many of us, myself included, wish that things with Harvin would have worked out better with the Vikings than they did, but it is nice to see him getting his life back in order and that he’s doing what he can to help people that may be suffering with some form of anxiety as well.<doc-sep>Percy Harvin revealed in a Sports Illustrated story that in addition to his unending migraines, he also has dealt with an anxiety disorder for much of his life. The 30-year-old, who walked away from the NFL after the 2016 season, was part of the magazine’s annual “where are they now?” issue and detailed his myriad struggles during his football career. ‘I’m at peace’ Living back in Gainesville, Fla., where he rose to stardom with the Florida Gators, and both helping to raise his 5-year-old son and serving as something of a mentor for current Florida players, Harvin opened up about his mental health struggles, in the hopes that he can help others. Referring to reporter Michael McKnight as “Bossman” throughout their time together, Harvin said he didn’t miss football last year, the first time since he began playing at age six that he wasn’t on a team. Percy Harvin, shown here as a member of the Seattle Seahawks at Super Bowl XLVIII, says he’s “at peace” after retiring before turning 30-years-old. (AP) “This whole journey has been surprising. A lot of the stuff I struggled with, it just don’t affect me no more,” Harvin said. “That’s why I’m comfortable talking about it. I’m cool with you asking whatever you want. Failing a drug test. The fights. ‘Cause it’s gonna help somebody.” Harvin said that his anxiety disorder, which he was diagnosed with only after he was drafted by the Minnesota Vikings in 2009, is linked to the vicious migraines he’s dealt with since he was seven. His migraines are well-known; he describes them as, “take a hammer and beat it on the side of your head nonstop.” The constant pain and the anxiety meant Harvin played nearly all of his NFL games on little to no sleep. “The best way I can describe it is that I felt ‘out of body.’ My heart would be going, I’d be sweating, I felt like everybody in the room was looking at me,” he said. “My speech was slurring. I didn’t want to eat. I was gasping for air. You’re so worked out that it’s hard to spit words out.” ‘I’m supposed to be here’ Harvin’s volatile outbursts followed him throughout his career, from high school through the NFL. He was suspended for disciplinary reasons in high school, disagreements with a Florida assistant coach, and he fought with at least two teammates. Story continues He won’t blame his anxiety disorder for his outbursts, and mental health professionals SI spoke with said anxiety and emotional outbursts aren’t usually related. Nearly a year ago, he gained split custody of his son, Jaden, with Janine Williams, a former Florida volleyball player Harvin had dated on and off for years; the week he moved back to Gainesville, Gators coach Jim McElwain was fired. His replacement? Dan Mullen, who had helped recruit Harvin to Florida and was the Gators’ offensive coordinator in 2005. Mullen and his family moved into the same neighborhood Harvin had moved into, and in addition to encouraging Harvin to return to school (he’s now a few credits shy of a degree in psychology), he told him to come visit the team whenever he wanted. “When I say I’m supposed to be here,” Harvin said of being in Gainesville again. “It’s not something I say lightly. It’s a gut feeling. A following-the-universe-type thing.” Moving to mentoring Once one of the most explosive players in college football and the NFL, Harvin now seems to be enjoying his role as a mentor. “He’s young enough that our players have seen him play; they’ve seen his success in the NFL,” Mullen said. “So when Percy says, ‘hey, here’s the standard; I’ve done it and it helped me be successful’ or ‘I didn’t, and it cost me,’ it’s a valuable voice. I mean, they wanna be him.”<doc-sep>Getty Images Percy Harvin never lacked the physical talent to be a great NFL player, but his career consisted mostly of a few flashes of greatness surrounded by many times he fell short. Now retired, the 30-year-old Harvin told Sports Illustrated he had “mental stresses that I can’t even put into words.” Those stresses started with migraine headaches, which he described as unbearable. “Take a hammer and beat it on the side of your head nonstop,” Harvin said of the way migraines felt. “If you’re trying to relax, if someone’s trying to talk to you, that hammer is still going off. You’re trying to eat, still going off.” Harvin also had anxiety that had him often playing on no sleep. “My heart would be going, I’d be sweating, I felt like everybody in the room was looking at me. My speech was slurring. I didn’t wanna eat. I was gasping for air. You’re so worked up that it’s hard to spit words out,” Harvin said. Harvin is now living back in Gainesville, Florida, where he was a star for the Gators. New Florida head coach Dan Mullen, who was the Gators’ offensive coordinator during Harvin’s final year there, has encouraged Harvin to spend time with the football team, and to finish his degree. Harvin says he’s been feeling better recently, and that’s why he’s now willing to talk about all the problems of his past. “A lot of the stuff I struggled with, it just don’t affect me no more. That’s why I’m comfortable talking about it,” Harvin said. “I’m cool with you asking whatever you want. Failing a drug test. The fights. ’Cause it’s gonna help somebody.” Harvin said he has no interest in trying to get back to the NFL, describing himself now as “at peace.”<doc-sep>
Harvin was on the track to stardom with the Vikings. Percy Harvin lit up the NFL with 29 touchdowns in his first four seasons with the Vikings, and then virtually fell of the map over the next four years before calling it a career. Harvin, Minnesota's first-round pick in 2009, was an open book about his struggles with anxiety in an interview with Sports Illustrated. “I’m cool with you asking whatever you want. Failing a drug test. The fights. ’Cause it’s gonna help somebody," Harvin is quoted as saying in the lengthy description of his fall from football grace. Harvin, still just 30 years old, told SI that NBA stars Kevin Love and DeMar DeRozan going public with their struggles with anxiety helped him do the same. But for him, it was his drive to be perfect that hurt him both personally and professionally. He used a time he was caught on TV cameras screaming at former Vikings head coach Leslie Frazier as an example, saying quarterback Christian Ponder missed him on a potential touchdown pass that drove him over the edge. “The best way I can describe it is that I felt ‘out of body,’” Harvin said of his anxiety attacks. “My heart would be going, I’d be sweating, I felt like everybody in the room was looking at me. My speech was slurring. I didn’t wanna eat. I was gasping for air. You’re so worked up that it’s hard to spit words out.” Harvin claimed he rarely slept and hardly ever ate leading up to games with the Vikings, Seahawks and Bills. He noted that his anxiety is linked to migraine headaches that have plagued him since he was 7 years old, equating the pain from a migraine to repeated bashing of a hammer against his head. Harvin now lives in Gainesville, Florida, where he often tries to guide football players from the University of Florida, his alma mater, in the right direction.