Percy Harvin was one of the more electrifying players in football during his college days, and the former Florida wide receiver did enjoy a decent career in the NFL as well for many years. But according to him, he did it all while stoned.
The 35-year-old former receiver spoke with Bleacher Report about his career and revealed that he hasn’t played a game sober in his entire career.
Percy Harvin Played Every NFL Game High On Weed
“There’s not a game I played in that I wasn’t high,” Harvin said.
But while plenty of different players go on to say they were, drunk, high, or under some sort of influence and mainly exaggerate the truth of their state during their playing days, Harvin emphasized the fact that he played every game high. He repeated the words “there’s not a game” to hammer home the claim that he did not play a single game sober in his career.
Harvin went on to say that he is admitting his smoking habits because he wants to change the stigma that any athlete who does drugs isn’t, or shouldn’t be labeled as a junkie, or that they have a problem. But rather he wants people to understand that they’re humans as well and may want to enjoy marijuana as well.
“That’s what I want the world to kind of see today,” Harvin said. “It’s not a stigma and you know people doing it and getting in a whole bunch of trouble, it’s people that’s just living regular life that got deficiencies or just may want to enjoy themselves,”
Now Harvin doesn’t specify whether this included his college playing days or just his professional NFL career, but if he is emphasizing that he didn’t play a single game without being high it’s safe to assume in college he was high when playing with the Florida Gators during his 2006 to 2008 collegiate career.
In college Harvin had amassed 1,852 rushing yards, and 1,929 receiving yards in his three years with Florida, establishing himself as a dual threat. He also scored 19 rushing touchdowns and 13 receiving touchdowns as well as one of the most impactful and productive players on that Florida offense.
In the NFL, Harvin recorded 353 catches for 4,026 yards, and 27 total touchdowns with the Vikings, Bills, Seahawks, and Jets.
As mentioned before Harvin, isn’t the only football player to publicly admit his usage of drugs or substances during his active career in the NFL.
In 2020, former Seattle Seahawks running back Marshawn Lynch reveals he’d take a shot or two of Hennessy before football games as a pregame ritual.
Football Hall of Famer Lawrence Taylor would routinely come to practice drunk and under the influence and said in an interview with 60 Minutes that he sometimes would participate in games after smoking crack, and even admitted that he retired early so he wouldn’t have to worry about being drug tested for smoking crack.
Former NFL running backs Ricky Williams and Le’Veon Bell also admitted that they used to smoke marijuana before they played in NFL games.
Williams — who led the league in rushing with 1,853 yards for the Miami Dolphins in 2002 — actually retired from the NFL in 2004 at age 27 after five seasons in the league rather than face sanctions over his marijuana use. He would subsequently return to the league in 2005 before being suspended the next season over another cannabis violation. Today he actually has successfully entered the marijuana business as well which was his next endeavor after he retired from the NFL completely in 2012.
With the exception of LT’s crack addiction (though he widely remains the greatest defensive player in football history), there are a lot of successful players who have gotten high before football games and have turned out just fine during and after their careers, and all Percy Harvin is trying to do is shine a light on that.
We also know that Harvin suffered from multiple concussions throughout his career and players and medical professionals have said in the past that marijuana has great medicinal benefits when it comes to dealing with concussion symptoms and pain management associated with injuries from playing.