MANKATO – Brad Childress said there was no update on Percy Harvin’s negotiations with the Vikings after the team’s first practice of training camp Friday. The Vikings selected the wide receiver with their first-round pick, No. 22 overall, in the April draft.

“It’s kind of the nature of the beast, seems like first-round picks and that cat and mouse game [of negotiations],” Childress said. “He needs to get here as soon as he’s able.”

Veteran wide receiver Bernard Berrian said he wasn’t disappointed that Harvin isn’t with the Vikings yet and described it as “part of the business,” with first-round picks. 

Added Berrian: “It’s going to happen every year, it’s going to happen next year. So it’s going to be the same thing every year.”

Today’s first practice went two hours and wasn’t met with glowing reviews from wide receiver Sidney Rice. On his twitter page, Rice wrote: “It was an average practice. First time in shoulder pads since [January]. We WILL have a better practice this afternoon.”

Both Tarvaris Jackson and Sage Rosenfels got reps with the first team and both spoke following the practice.

Although he finished last season as the Vikings starter, Jackson said he does not feel like this is his job to lose. “I just look at it just like it’s 50-50,” he said. “I’m just coming here to compete, just like I would do if I was named the starter. I wouldn’t work any different. I work hard anyway and I just take it as I’m trying to prove myself anyway. I am competing against [Rosenfels] but I’m also competing against myself. Just trying to get better.”

Rosenfels, meanwhile, called training camp and the season a marathon and thus wasn’t all that excited to have one practice under his belt.

“It was fine,” he said. “I felt pretty comfortable. I’ve definitely felt more uncomfortable on my first day on teams I’ve been around for years. For being this sort of my first year out here with the pads on, I felt very comfortable.”

It’s clear Rosenfels has grown very tired of the Brett Favre talk. Asked about it today, he said, “I don’t think about it. I wasn’t thinking about it out there today at practice and I’m not thinking about it right now until you just asked me that question. The more you guys stop asking those questions the less I’ll even have to worry about it.”

This entry was posted on Friday, July 31st, 2009 at 12:16 pm and is filed under Main. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.