Michael Floyd suspended first 4 games of season due to ‘extreme DUI’

When the Vikings signed free agent wide receiver Michael Floyd, they did so knowing he may miss a chunk of the 2017 season thanks to disciplinary action from the league. On Friday, the team announced they’ll be without the receiver for the first four games of the season.

Floyd will be eligible to participate in all preseason practices and games. He’s slated to return on Oct. 2. His first game back will be Oct. 9, when the Vikings take on the Bears on Monday Night Football.

Floyd’s 2016 arrest for “extreme DUI” in Scottsdale, Ariz., led to his release from the Arizona Cardinals, where he spent the first four-plus seasons of his career. He would later sign with the Patriots, where he’d make one start to finish off the regular season. While he’d go on to earn a Super Bowl ring in New England, he only appeared in one playoff game with the champs, making a single reception in the Divisional round against the Texans.

The Vikings signed Floyd in May, bringing the receiver to his hometown team. In June, Floyd was sentenced to one day in jail after a positive alcohol test, which he claimed was because of kombucha tea.

“Do I believe it? I don’t know how much tea he drank. I have no clue,” Zimmer said via the Pioneer Press. “I don’t have any doubt why there’d be skepticism, but he told me that he wasn’t (drinking). That it was legit. I said, ‘If I find out you’re lying to me, I’m going to cut you,’” Zimmer said.

The discipline is stronger than NFL policy that sets a baseline suspension of one game for a player’s first DUI charge. The big question was whether mitigating circumstances would force the league to come down even harder, which they did. Floyd’s 0.217 blood-alcohol level surpassed regular intoxication levels and earned the “extreme” label that carries harsher legal penalties. He spent three weeks in jail for it this offseason.

However, while Floyd’s DUI was his first since joining the NFL, the 2016 arrest wasn’t his first drunk driving charge. He was suspended indefinitely by Notre Dame in 2011 for driving with a blood-alcohol level twice the legal limit. His suspension was lifted in August 2011, and the Cardinals selected him in the first round of the 2012 NFL draft.

Minnesota signed Floyd to give the team some extra depth at receiver. Stefon Diggs and Adam Thielen emerged as legitimate scoring threats last fall, each gaining more than 900 receiving yards and helping Sam Bradford regain his value as a starting quarterback. Floyd will battle second-year player Laquon Treadwell for the team’s No. 3 wideout role. But now that he’s going to miss the first month of the season, that’s going to become a much more difficult task.