Percy Harvin planning NFL comeback after 4-year hiatus

By MARK LONG

GAINESVILLE, Fla. (AP) — Percy Harvin is planning an NFL comeback nearly four years after his last game.

The former Florida star and first-round draft pick by Minnesota in 2009 expects to get invited to a training camp this season and show his 32-year-old body still has what it takes to be an elite playmaker.

“It’s destiny,” Harvin told The Associated Press on Wednesday. “There’s always been something to stop me coming back. But things started slowly leading back to football and the desire started coming back.”

The biggest step came after hip surgery last August in Gainesville. Doctors found a blockage he said may have been there since high school.

Harvin helped lead the Gators to their third national championship in 2008.

His professional career ended shortly after he was playing soccer with his 2-year-old son in his backyard in 2016. Harvin clearly tweaked something, and not long after he lost balance, had no explosive power in his legs and couldn’t get in and out of breaks. In short, he no longer looked or felt like himself.

So Harvin walked away. He spent the next three years in pain, physical and mental. He went back to school. He got involved in a few business ventures. But he never stopped working out, even though he was a shell of himself at times.

Surgery was the turning point. So was his training that followed. He ended up working with former Olympian Tim Montgomery at NUMA Speed in Gainesville, and calls the 2000 gold medalist sprinter the best trainer he’s ever dealt with.

He started running four miles a day, got strength and power back in his legs through squats, then found the hip flexibility that eluded him for years.

“That light bulb hit,” Harvin said. “I was happy about it and starting thinking about a return. It all just came together.”

He called his doctor and asked him to get all the paperwork ready for NFL teams, saying “They’re definitely going to want to see what’s been done the last couple of years.”