Did Minnesota know something we didn't?

That's what the popular theory was a few weeks ago when it was discovered that Seattle Seahawks wide receiver Percy Harvin had a slight tear in his hip.

But as any other fan could say, nobody saw this one coming.

IN CASE you missed it earlier this week - and if you're a Seahawks fan, chances are, you didn't - Harvin will miss a significant amount of time during the season recovering from surgery on his hip on Thursday.

At first, some wanted to believe that Harvin, who was traded from Minnesota to Seattle in March, had a pre-existing injury that wasn't caught before joining the team.

Doesn't matter now.

All reports suggest that Harvin will be out for most, if not for the season.

Well, hopefully not the season.

Entering the season, there was a ton of expectations put on the Seahawks, mostly surrounding the expected impact that Harvin was supposed to be bringing to the team.

It wasn't so long ago either that similar expectations were put on the team that they were supposed to be a Super Bowl contender by members of the national media.

In 2004, the Seahawks found a way to win the division, although it wasn't pretty at times and ended up hosting the St. Louis Rams in a wild-card playoff game.

With a chance to win that game, they came up short and the Rams wound up beating Seattle for the third time that season.

The following year, flying under the radar, Seattle finally - finally - got to the Super Bowl.

IN THE league, there's 32 teams that feel they've got a chance to win the Super Bowl right now.

There wasn't many that believed the Seahawks could make the playoffs last season, let alone be one defensive stop away from facing San Francisco in the NFC title game - but it almost happened.

And Harvin wasn't a part of that team either.

Keep in mind, training camp has only been in session for a little over a week, and they haven't been quite as snakebitten as teams like the Broncos, who lost a starting center, and the Baltimore Ravens, who lost their starting tight end fresh off winning the Super Bowl.

There's still a month from the regular season to begin and eventually the contenders will break away from the pretenders by the middle of November, when it's rumored Harvin could return.

Along with those expectations.

Jason Elliott is a sports writer for the Coeur d'Alene Press. He can be reached by telephone at 664-8176, Ext. 2020 or via email at jelliott@cdapress.com.