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Harvin disappointed in Moss departure

Percy Harvin became close to Randy Moss in four weeks as teammates

November 3, 2010 at 7:31PM

Percy Harvin became close to Randy Moss in their four-week stint as teammates and looked up to him as a mentor. Not surprisingly, Harvin was extremely disappointed when coach Brad Childress informed the team on Monday that Moss was being waived.

"We kind of looked at him kind of like, 'Are you serious?'" Harvin said. "It came out of nowhere. It caught a lot of us off-guard. But that's coach's decision. If he felt that was for the betterment of the team, then that's what it is."

Harvin seemed almost star-struck the day Moss arrived and he called it a "blessing" to get to play with him. Harvin was asked if teammates were disappointed or angry about Childress' decision to cut him.

"I can't speak for everybody else. For me it's a little bit of both, but it's part of the business," Harvin said. "I just have to move on and this team has to move on. We'll be fine."

Harvin paused for a few seconds when asked if he was content with the explanation that Childress gave for why he released Moss.

"The explanation, we really didn't get one," Harvin said. "I'm just not trying to feed into it too much. It is what it is. This team has to move on. This offense has to move on. We'll just take it as that."

Harvin said he's talked to Moss several times in recent days but declined to give specifics.

"It's tough," he said. "The whole thing was not my decision. We're friends and we'll remain friends The things he taught me I'll continue to use that to elevate my game. The only thing that's changed is we're not teammates but we're still in contact."

Favre reacts

With 20 years of experience in the NFL, quarterback Brett Favre was a bit less shaken by the fact the Vikings had cut a guy they thought would be their No. 1 receiver for the rest of this season.

Favre admitted he was "a little bit shocked" when Childress told the team but added, "in this league, you should never be surprised by anything." Favre said he wasn't consulted before the Vikings traded for Moss and he wasn't consulted when they decided to release him. Favre said he saw Moss' outburst on Friday in the locker room when he criticized the food that had been brought in by a local restaurant but he said he did not want to get into what happened. Asked whether he saw anything from Moss that led him to believe this wouldn't work, Favre said: "I never played with Randy. I don't want to get into all the what ifs, whys. You watch Randy over the years, Randy is Randy. There are probably certain routes that he doesn't run as well, but there's one in particular that you're scared of. That in itself, aside from [Jets cornerback Antonio] Cromartie this year, he got double-coverage every time. That takes another guy out of the box. I understand that. So, did he hustle on every play? "I don't know if Randy has ever hustled on every play. That's just Randy. But he knows what his value is. He figures, 'Heck, two guys follow me everywhere I go.' Cromartie did a great job against him, challenged him one on one, but eventually we got a big one. That's why teams don't do that. They may watch and say, 'He's jogging, jogging, jogging.' Boom! 70-yard touchdown. That one definitely got us a spark that night. "I never practiced with Randy before. I never played with Randy before, so I don't know what it was like in practice with him in the past, locker room and all that stuff. But I thought it was worth a try. I was surprised by the decision to let him go. But you know what? Nothing should surprise you in this league. There's a lot of here-today, gone-tomorrow." Favre continues to play with a stress fracture in his left ankle and another in his left heel. He also has sore throwing elbow and suffered a gash in his chin Sunday that required 10 stitches. He said he passed a concussion test. "Aside from all those [injuries], I'm great," he said. "No, people whether it be home or up here [say], 'Hey, how are you feeling?' I say I probably should feel a lot worse. That's not to say tendinitis hasn't bothered me at one point. That's not to say I have two broken bones in my left foot doesn't bother me. Last night at 4 in the morning when I woke up throbbing … But during the game, I moved around fine. Actually, way better than I thought I would. I wasn't anticipating getting smacked in the chin. That made me forget about the foot. You see where I'm going with this. Week in and week out, I don't know what it will be this week, but I'll probably forget about the chin. But overall, I'm ok."