First reported by TMZ and confirmed by Andrew Krammer of Minnesota’s Star Tribune with police records, current Viking and former Cardinal and Patriot wide receiver Michael Floyd failed multiple BAC tests and missed another last Sunday evening and into Monday morning — violating the terms of his house arrest.
Krammer provided more details, based on police records.
Floyd said he drank Kombucha tea, records show, which is a fermented beverage that can contain up to 0.5 percent alcohol when properly stored. Floyd’s breath tests registered a .055 blood-alcohol level at 5:30 a.m., .045 at 5:54 a.m. and .044 at 6:23 a.m. on Sunday morning. He then missed a test at 6:33 a.m.
Floyd was serving a 96-day house arrest sentence following his 24-day jail term for the publicized arrest in Scottsdale,AZ in which his BAC was over .21. The Cardinals waived the former Notre Dame star a few days later after reportedly taking no accountability for the incident. The police video of the arrest, which saw Floyd unconscious behind the wheel of his vehicle in a left turn lane of a busy intersection, was released by TMZ in the days following his waiver claim by the Patriots.
FLoyd’s agent came forward on Friday afternoon with a statement regarding the reports of the house arrest violation.
Michael Floyd started his 96-day home monitoring on March 13, 2017. During this time period, Michael was tested a minimum of six times per day. For the first 90 days, Michael’s blood alcohol content was 0.0 for all of his 500 plus tests.
On June 10, 2017, Michael watched movies at his place of residence until 3:00 a.m. During that time, he drank several bottles of Kombucha tea drinks, unaware that the drinks contain alcohol.
On June 11, 2017 at 5:30 a.m., Michael was tested and his blood alcohol content was .055. Michael was tested again at 5:54 a.m. and his blood alcohol content was down to .045. Michael was tested again at 6:23 a.m. and his blood alcohol content was .044. He then went back to sleep and missed a test at 6:33 a.m.
Michael was five days away from the end of his home monitoring. Prior to and after this incident, Michael has not had any alcohol whatsoever since the start of his home monitoring. Unfortunately, the Kombucha teas that Michael did drink resulted in a positive blood alcohol content reading. As a result, the Court wishes to hear from Michael on June 26. At that time, Michael will have an opportunity to explain how this unfortunate test result happened.
Floyd, with multiple alcohol related offenses in college, continues to show troublesome patterns of behavior, yet he is given chance after chance by NFL teams who are well aware of his past.
Why?
Because the NFL’s alcohol problem is the elephant in the room that no one wants to talk about. It it the mitigating factor in many of the other more public off-field issues the NFL has.
Of course alcohol is directly related to the numerous DUI arrests seen around the league throughout the years, but it is also involved in a large percentage of the league’s domestic violence incidents. Alcohol is even an underlying element of the NFL’s concussion issue, with dependence on the substance experienced by a majority of former players suffering from depression as a result of CTE.
However, this season, in addition to the standard bombardment of beer advertisements, commercials romanticizing liquor will return to NFL broadcasts — which raises an important question.
When it comes to alcohol, just how high the is the NFL’s level of ignorance?