Overshadowed by the giant shadows cast over Super Bowl XLVIII by Peyton Manning and Richard Sherman, Percy Harvin has emerged as the dangerous X-factor who is sounding the alarm that he very well could determine who will be hoisting the Lombardi Trophy Sunday night at MetLife Stadium.
At the end of a lost and lonely season, one ravaged by hip surgery rehab and then a most untimely concussion in the playoffs against the Saints that left him asking “Why me?” and pleading with Pete Carroll not to place him on Super Bowl dream-ending injured reserve, here was Harvin, soaking up the sights and sounds of Media Day, smiling from Minnesota to Seattle, pronouncing himself — and his team — ready to bring it home to their beloved 12th Man.
“Nobody has won a Super Bowl on this team … we’re all very hungry right now,” Harvin said.
“We got to have it. It has to come back to Seattle. We all have that mind-set right now. Look in guys’ eyes, man.
“We got to have it.”
Harvin peered out at the media horde inside the Prudential Center and resembled a kid on Christmas morning. He has been given the best gift there is: a chance to play in the Super Bowl. A chance to wreck the Super Bowl for Manning and the Broncos
“I’m in the whole game plan,” Harvin said. “Whatever I was brought here to do I’ll be doing.
“I’m playing in this game, and trust me, I won’t leave anything in the tank.”
At the very least, Harvin’s presence forces the Broncos to spend extra preparation time, both on defense and on special teams.
At the very most, he gives Russell Wilson added firepower he may need in any potential shootout with Manning.
“We’re definitely going to be explosive,” Harvin said, “and we’re looking to make a lot of big plays in this game.”
He was asked how explosive he can be, after an outside-looking-in season that saw him catch one pass for 17 yards.
“I can be as explosive as I ever been,” he said. “I’m finally able to get the drive in my legs that I need to get to come break out of my breaks. I’m a lot quicker than I was before the injury.
“So I definitely think I can be a factor in this game.”
X-factor.
Randy Moss, FOX Sports microphone in hand, shouted to Harvin, seated behind a podium table: “I missed you all season, bruh, I know the 12th Man, the whole Seattle fan base missed ya, in a game like this, man, how do you feel you can impact this game and bring this thing home to Seattle?”
“In different phases of the game,” Harvin began. “The first, I definitely think special teams, I definitely could be a factor in the game. Just being another threat on the team … with us four receivers on the field along with Marshawn Lynch, I think it’s going to be pick your poison in who they want to stop.”
Of all the weapons on both sides of the ball, Harvin is arguably the most poisonous in the open field.
He has caught 20 touchdown passes in 55 career games. He has averaged 28.2 yards per kickoff return, with five TDs. He has scored four rushing TDs.
And from Pop Warner to Florida to the NFL to Super Sunday, the bigger the game, the better.
“I live for this,” Harvin said.
He lived and died and lived again following those agonizing seconds when the ball and the season were hanging in the air and headed for Michael Crabtree in the corner of the end zone before Richard Sherman swatted it away to Malcolm Smith.
“To know that all my up-and-down days, all the doctor visits, all the New York visits, it all was right here in front of me,” Harvin said. “I had so many people texting my phone saying ‘God is good, and you never know what your plans are.’ My goal is still right here.”
It is a lofty goal.
“I don’t have any goals for this game but to go out there and try to dominate,” the X-factor said, “like I always do.”