The Minnesota Vikings are covering Michael Floyd’s flank in his kombucha tea defense as the wide receiver prepares to face an Arizona judge Monday to explain how he violated house arrest by accidentally ingesting alcohol.

Vikings chief operating officer Kevin Warren wrote a letter to Floyd’s attorney, Robert Feinberg, who attached it to a defense motion urging Scottsdale City Judge Statia Hendrix to cancel the hearing and reinstate electronic monitoring for the last five days of Floyd’s 96-day home confinement.

Warren corroborates Floyd’s claim that he was unaware kombucha tea contained alcohol when he drank several bottles while watching movies late into the early morning of June 11 at the Minnesota house of Vikings tight end Kyle Rudolph, his former college roommate at Notre Dame.

The wideout later failed three self-administered Breathalyzer tests and was ordered by Hendrix to appear Monday and prove he did not violate probation from his February extreme DUI conviction — a violation that could land Floyd back in jail.

“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 in the June 21 letter, which was cc’d to Vikings president Mark Wilf, general manager Rick Spielman and coach Mike Zimmer.

Floyd said in a sworn affidavit the Vikings encourage their players to consume kombucha tea as a health drink, and that it is served “on tap” at Winter Park.

He also told Hendrix he failed to refrigerate a case of GT Synergy kombucha tea he bought at Whole Foods and brought to Rudolph’s house, which, according to a forensic pathologist Floyd hired to defend him, elevated his blood-alcohol levels.

In his letter, Warren explained how kombucha tea is “utilized by many professional athletes as a probiotic and is available at our facility on a daily basis.”

He also referenced a 2015 warning regulators with the U.S. Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau issued to beverage producers whose kombucha tea contained too much alcohol, threatening federal fines if they did not reformulate their drinks.

“In closing, since Michael has joined our team, he has displayed a strong work ethic, a compliant attitude and professionalism,” Warren wrote in support of Floyd.

Floyd, a St. Paul native and Cretin-Derham Hall graduate, served a 24-day jail sentence after pleading guilty to extreme DUI in Scottsdale. His blood-alcohol level was .217 on Dec. 11 when police arrested him after finding Floyd asleep at a traffic light behind the wheel of his running vehicle.

The Arizona Cardinals released him days later. Floyd finished the season with New England but was inactive for the Patriots’ Super Bowl LI victory over Atlanta.

The Vikings signed Floyd May 10 to one-year, $1.5 million contract that could be worth as much as $6 million with incentives. His house arrest started in March and was scheduled to end June 17 until he was flagged five days earlier at Rudolph’s.

Floyd said in his affidavit that between 1:30 a.m. and 4 a.m. he drank “four or five bottles” of kombucha tea while watching movies. Related Articles Vikings’ Tajae Sharpe excited about facing former Titans teammates

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“After falling asleep, I awoke to the beeping of the home-monitoring machine, signaling that I must complete a test,” Floyd said. “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.”

At 5:30 a.m. June 11, Floyd’s blood-alcohol content was .055, according to court documents. He was tested again at 5:54 a.m. and it was down to .045. At 6:23 a.m. his blood-alcohol content was .044. Floyd went back to sleep and missed a fourth test scheduled for 6:33 a.m.

Gossip web site TMZ reported June 16 that Floyd’s alcohol-monitoring system flagged five random tests for “high-alcohol” content, which Floyd denied.

“Totally false,” he told the Pioneer Press that day. “The whole thing is false. You can’t believe everything TMZ says.”

According to the Mayo Clinic, kombucha tea is a fermented drink made with tea, sugar, bacteria and yeast. According to an article on Mayo’s website: “There isn’t good evidence that kombucha tea delivers on its health claims.”

To bolster his defense, Floyd hired Thomas L. Bennett, a doctor of forensic medicine and pathology in Sheridan, Wy.

Bennett reviewed Floyd’s Breathalyzer tests and interviewed the Vikings wide receiver Tuesday over the telephone, concluding in an eight-page report to Judge Hendrix that Floyd’s non-compliance tests were caused by fermented kombucha tea.

“To a reasonable degree of medical and scientific certainty,” Bennett wrote that Floyd’s breath alcohol levels of .044-.055 percent “are achievable and consistent with ingesting kombucha, in the circumstances and time frames as Michael Floyd described.

“This living and dynamic beverage, kept at room temperature, will continue to change during storage. Alcohol is a natural and expected component of this process.”

Feinberg, the defense attorney, asked Hendrix to consider Bennett’s report and Floyd’s affidavit, dismiss Monday’s hearing and order his client to finish his house arrest. Otherwise, Floyd is prepared to explain what happened and convince Hendrix not to revoke his bond and order him back to jail.

“Common sense alone dictates that Mr. Floyd would not jeopardize all of his hard work with only five days of home monitoring remaining,” Feinberg wrote in his motion. “Mr. Floyd simply would not have ingested kombucha had he known that it contained alcohol and doing so would violate his home-monitoring terms.

“The circumstantial evidence alone provides a clear window into what happened here: a simple mistake was made by a well-meaning young man in a fiercely competitive sport, who was drinking a health drink recommended by his team, the Minnesota Vikings, and who had no idea the drink contained alcohol.”