Vikings Support WR Michael Floyd, Say They Encouraged Him To Kombucha Drink Tea

Vikings COO Kevin Warren recently wrote a letter to WR Michael Floyd’s attorney, Robert Feinberg, who added it to their defense motion urging Judge Statia Hendrix to cancel Floyd’s hearing and reinstate electronic monitoring for the remaining five days of his home arrest.

Floyd failed three self-administered Breathalyzer tests, which he attributed to drinking several bottles of kombucha tea. The issue is that Floyd is prevented from consuming any alcohol while under house arrest and this product happens to contain tea.

It’s possible that Floyd could end up back in jail, depending on how this case plays out.

Warren’s letter says they encouraged Floyd to drink the tea, which is available at their facility and used as a probiotic.

“I am writing to request Mr. Floyd not have his court mandated requirements negatively impacted since he did not know the kombucha he ingested contained alcohol,” Warren wrote, via Brian Murphy of the Pioneer Press.

In a sworn affidavit, Floyd says that the Vikings encourage their players to consume kombucha tea as a health drink and even have it “on tap” at their facility.

Floyd has hired a forensic pathologist to defend him and support his claim that his elevated blood-alcohol levels were due in part to his failure to refrigerate a case of GT Synergy kombucha tea that he bought at Whole Foods.

In his affidavit, Floyd says he drank four or five bottles of the tea before taking the breathalyzer tests.

“After falling asleep, I awoke to the beeping of the home-monitoring machine, signaling that I must complete a test,” Floyd said in his affidavit. “I had several sips of kombucha right after waking up, just before blowing into the home-monitoring testing machine. I had not eaten anything since noon on June 10.

“I received a call on June 12 from an administrator at Sentinel Advantage, informing me of the results of the three tests from the morning of June 11 and informing me that I missed a fourth test. Until I was contacted by the administrator at Sentinel Advantage about the report related to the morning of June 11, I had no knowledge that kombucha contained alcohol, or that some types of kombucha have a higher alcohol content than others.”

Floyd, 27, is a former first-round pick of the Cardinals back in 2012. He played his four-year, $9.972 million contract before the Cardinals elected to pick up his fifth-year option in 2015.

After he was arrested for DUI last year, Arizona elected to cut him loose and he was later claimed off of waivers by the Patriots. The Vikings signed him to a one-year, $1.41 million contract last month.

In 2016, Floyd has appeared in 15 games and caught 37 passes for 488 yards receiving and five touchdowns for the Patriots. Pro Football Focus has him rated as the No. 94 receiver out of 115 qualifying players.

We’ll have more regarding Floyd and this situation as the news is available.