After a difficult year personally following two deaths in his family, Pittsburgh Steelers punter Pressley Harvin III told Max Ralph of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette that he’s working on giving himself time to heal and becoming a role model.
“That’s really been the biggest thing this offseason I’ve been doing is giving myself the time to heal, getting used to my new normal and continue to keep doing what I can do best,” Harvin said.
As a seventh-round pick who started immediately by beating out Jordan Berry for the punting job, there were fairly high expectations for Harvin last year. He struggled a little bit on the field, but his life off the field was rocked by the deaths of his father and grandmother in back-to-back weeks.
Obviously, that’s tough for anybody to deal with, especially an NFL rookie who is adapting to a whole new lifestyle. No matter how hardened or tough someone might be, it’s bound to have an effect when you lose two people close to you in back-to-back weeks. He missed two games last year due to personal reasons after the deaths in his family.
Harvin’s mindset about his situation heading into this year is positive, though.
“I told myself if I could get through last season, I can honestly accomplish and get through anything in life,” Harvin told Ralph. “I’ve gone through my hard times now, and I just tell myself, ‘Why not be on the other side? Why can’t I be the one to help someone else if they’re going through the same thing or similar things? Why can’t I be the one that they can look up to?’
Regardless of his on-field success, I’m rooting for Harvin as a person. He’s endured a lot, and he seems to genuinely be a good person who wants to do good. While having the ability to punt a ball 60 yards is nice, I’m willing to bet it’ll be his work off the field that affects more people than what he does on it.
No matter what happens with Harvin on the field this year, I hope he finds success in whatever he does. His NFL career didn’t have the best start for a variety of reasons, and I hope he finds success on the field and happiness off of it in 2022.
