Seahawks’ training camp is off to a strange start

By Jim Moore

Well, at least the mystery finally has clarity – Percy Harvin will have surgery to repair his hip injury and isn’t expected to be back until November or December.

To my way of warped thinking, this is the worst-case scenario – not the one that would have definitely caused him to miss the entire season, which is still possible.

If we knew that he was out for the whole year, the Seahawks could go about their business like they never even made that whopper offseason trade to get him. They already have an explosive offense, one that averaged 32.9 points over the last nine games.

Percy Harvin will have surgery to repair his ailing hip, news he broke himself Tuesday on his Twitter account. (AP)

The scenario that everyone wanted was the one in which Harvin would have missed a week or two and returned in the preseason with enough time to blend into the Seahawks’ offense.

Now, if he does in fact return in November or December – and I’m betting with both hands that we won’t see him ’til 2014 – the Seahawks will have to work him in on the fly. If they’re 10-1 or 9-2 and functioning well on offense when Harvin returns, I don’t know if I’m that anxious to have him back. As dynamic as he is, Harvin could disrupt what’s already going on. Then again, if the Seahawks are sputtering along at 6-5, a catalyst like Harvin could give them a lift.

Best case in this scenario: Harvin returns after the Minnesota game on Nov. 17. The Seahawks have a bye on Nov. 24, giving Harvin and the team two weeks to work on their offense before facing the Saints at CenturyLink Field on Dec. 2.

This is how the first week of training camp ended for the Seahawks. For me, it began when I showed up late for the first practice last Thursday and asked colleague Danny O’Neil if I’d missed anything.

“Percy Harvin has a hip injury, and it might be a torn labrum,” O’Neil said.

As is usually the case, I thought the Roaming Gnome was messing with me. For a change, he wasn’t.

Here’s what I’d like to know, even if it doesn’t matter now: how and when did Harvin suffer the injury? Coach Pete Carroll said he saw him a few days before training camp and “he was flying around.” How do you go from flying around to grounded just like that? How can your head coach and your teammates not know about the injury? They were just as blindsided as reporters, who are used to being clueless, or at least I am.

Then we get the news that Harvin is seeking a second opinion in New York on Tuesday. And as we waited for the results of that exam, we expected to find out from John Clayton or Adam Schefter or Chris Mortensen or Jay Glazer or some other national newshound, but instead we get it from Harvin himself via Twitter.

“When everything is goin good sometimes life throw u a curve ball…sorry to half to report that my injury will require surgery,” he tweeted.

Far be it from me to criticize someone else’s grammar when I butcher the English language on a daily basis on “Wyman, Mike and Moore,” but still. “Life throw you a curveball”? “Half to report”? And just the fact that the news was announced through an icon featuring a stupid little blue bird instead of from the team, well, it officially means I’m old and ready to take it out on a dugout phone like David Ortiz did. I guess it was better than if Harvin had tweeted he would half to miss the “hole” season.

As if that weren’t enough, Carroll told reporters that receiver Sidney Rice missed practice because he’s in Switzerland getting a preventive procedure performed on his knee.

That caused a double huh from me.

Huh No. 1: If Rice has an issue with his knee and truly needs to go to the Swiss Alps to deal with it, why couldn’t he have done it before training camp started?

Huh No. 2: Switzerland? Are you kidding? I know, they’ve probably got some blood-transfusion thing going on over there that you can’t get here, but still – if Carroll had said we had to guess which country Rice went to to get treatment, how long would it have taken you to come up with Switzerland?

I know this much: this isn’t how I would’ve drawn up the first week when I predicted that the Seahawks could go 19-0 this year.

The Go 2 Guy also writes for his website, jimmoorethego2guy.com, and kitsapsun.com. You can reach Jim at jimmoorethego2guy@yahoo.com and follow him on Twitter @cougsgo.