3 Good ReasonsWhy NFL Teams Shouldnt Pay Much Attention To Rumors Of Draft Prospects Being Involved With Drugs

Warren Sapp fell to Tampa Bay with the 12th pick in 1995 because of rumors of a failed marijuana test.


Randy Moss fell in the Vikings' lap with the 21st pick in 1998 for similar reasons.



And Dolphins fans should be thankful for the rumors about Dan Marino's cocaine habits and score of 16 on the Wonderlic, because otherwise he likely wouldn't have fallen to Miami with the 27th pick in 1983.

And now they're beginning with some others as well as Florida's Percy Harvin........



Florida's Percy Harvin Stock Slipping

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Sunday, April 12, 2009
GAINESVILLE — Louis Oliver knows just how Percy Harvin feels this month.
Like Harvin, Oliver was a star at the University of Florida and was the subject of rumors about a failed drug test in 1989 that sent his draft stock plummeting.


Oliver, expected to be a top-10 pick, wound up going at No. 25 to the Dolphins.

"I didn't drink, I didn't smoke, I didn't do anything. I was like, 'You've got to be kidding,' " said Oliver, a safety from Glades Central High School. "But it's out of your control. There's nothing you can really do about it."

Twenty years later, the rumors are swirling around another Gators' star and there's nothing Harvin can do about it.

First there was the reported score of 12 out of 50 on Harvin's Wonderlic test in February, which measures quick thinking and basic problem solving. Then NFLDraftBible.com reported 10 days ago that Harvin and three other players tested positive for marijuana at February's NFL Combine in Indianapolis, though no other outlet has confirmed the report.

"He's as talented as anyone in the draft this year," said Gil Brandt, the longtime general manager of Tom Landry's Dallas Cowboys and now a draft analyst for NFL.com. "But he has those off-field problems, and that's going to knock him down a little bit."

Harvin scored 32 touchdowns in three seasons and was a major factor on two national championship teams. He can play running back or receiver, averaged 11 yards every time he touched the ball in 2008 (110 times), and, playing with a fractured bone in his foot, famously gained 170 yards with a touchdown in the 2009 national title game.

Still, Pro Football Weekly recently polled NFL executives about the riskiest picks in this coming draft and Harvin was selected as the unanimous winner because of "coachability, a posse of hangers-on, his lack of respect for authority and drug usage."

The reports never will be publicly confirmed by the NFL, but fair or not, the rumors are out there. Combine them with Harvin's frequent run-ins with authorities as a high school star in the Virginia Beach area, which resulted in him being removed from high school sports altogether, and suddenly Harvin has gone from a top-10 pick to maybe slipping to the second round.

"Clear and void of those things, he's a first-round pick," said Tony Pauline, draft expert for SportsIllustrated.com. "But a guy like that, those things could hurt a lot. It could knock him out of the first round."

That's 3 really good reasons over the span of 3 decades. How many busts have there been with drug related issues over the same time frame?

Obviously there are the sour grapes but the point is they shouldn't always listen to hearsay.....

Drafting unproven talent is a crap shoot as it is. Early warning signs of troubled athletes should be part of the consideration aspect of drafting.

But to add to that you are right about it if it is just hearsay

If he was smoking weed before the Oklahoma game, Florida should forfeit the National Championship. :smoker2:

bellyputter said:

If he was smoking weed before the Oklahoma game, Florida should forfeit the National Championship. :smoker2:

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One of the HS basketball champions in Michigan had to forfeit the title for using an ineligible player. Stripped them of the title, and ruled no winner. Same would happen here.

Not hearsay anymore....

FullyEclipsed said:

Not hearsay anymore....

Click to expand...

You're right, guys like Harvin are exactly the reason many NFL teams are indeed skeptical when they hear things like this about players.

When you KNOW you are going to be drug tested, with your career & millions of dollars on the line, and you STILL can't stay clean at least for that short period of time, then you have MAJOR ISSUES.........

I agree. I had this same conversation today with a co-worker. Flashbacks of a Minny draft pick a few years ago rings out in this situation. Ontario Smith I believe had either failed a drug test prior to the draft or had speculation about it. But either way we all know how that one ended.

I don't think anyone really cares that the players were smoking pot as much as the fact the player was dumb enough to do it with the biggest drug test of their life coming up where it could cost them millions.

HacheMan said:

You're right, guys like Harvin are exactly the reason many NFL teams are indeed skeptical when they hear things like this about players.

When you KNOW you are going to be drug tested, with your career & millions of dollars on the line, and you STILL can't stay clean at least for that short period of time, then you have MAJOR ISSUES.........

Click to expand...

Either that, or you've got sufficient confidence to know that regardless of the failed urine test you'll still have a great career and make tens of millions of dollars.

You're a college football player who has been invited to the combine. You like to smoke a little recreational weed now and then.

YOU KNOW THE NFL IS GOING TO DRUG TEST YOU AT THE COMBINE.

If you test positive for weed, you are:
1.The dumbest SOB on the planet.
or
2. Someone who doesn't think the rules apply to them.

Any wonder an NFL team isn't interested in giving millions of dollars to someone who cant be clean when they F'ing KNOW the drug test is coming???

Doc

You're still missing the key point, which is that an NFL team will still give Harvan millions of dollars. Likely even tens of millions.

If he persists with failing urine tests after he's signed and under contract, then we can revisit just how much money he's losing.