UPDATE: On Friday, Michael Floyd was suspended without pay for the first four games of the 2017 regular season for violating the NFL Policy and Program for Substances of Abuse, the team announced. He is still eligible to report to training camp July 26 in Mankato with the rest of Minnesota’s veteran players.

WALTON, Ky. — Vikings wide receiver Michael Floyd sold his kombucha tea defense to an Arizona judge and his skeptical head coach, Mike Zimmer.

“Do I believe it? I don’t know how much tea he drank. I have no clue,” Zimmer told 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.”

Zimmer and Floyd talked over the telephone shortly after news broke about him failing three self-administered Breathalyzer tests June 10-11.

“I said, ‘If I find out you’re lying to me, I’m going to cut you,’ ” Zimmer said.

Floyd was ordered back to jail June 28 for one day and has served the balance of his home confinement from his February drunken-driving conviction, according to court records in Scottsdale, Ariz.

The Vikings vigorously defended Floyd, whose probation was transferred to Minnesota after the team signed him as a free agent in May to a non-guaranteed $1.4 million contract.

Kevin Warren, the Vikings’ chief operating officer, corroborated Floyd’s claim that he was unaware kombucha tea contained alcohol when he drank several bottles while watching movies June 10-11 at the Twin Cities house of Vikings tight end Kyle Rudolph, his former college roommate at Notre Dame.

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Vikings back Michael Floyd’s kombucha tea defense in Arizona. WR says team encouraged its consumption.

Arizona judge jails Vikings WR Michael Floyd for one day in alcohol case “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 to Floyd’s attorney, Robert Feinberg, which was cc’d to Vikings president Mark Wilf, general manager Rick Spielman and 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.

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 wrote.

Warren 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, pleaded 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 legal blood-alcohol limit in Arizona is .08, the same as Minnesota.)

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.

Floyd failed three self-administered Breathalyzer tests in June and was ordered by Scottsdale City Judge Statia Hendrix to appear before her June 26 and prove he did not violate his probation. Hendrix found Floyd in violation and sentenced him to one day in jail.

ProFootballTalk.com reported June 27 that Floyd had his disciplinary hearing with NFL officials per the league’s substance-abuse policy. He faces a minimum two-game unpaid suspension, but the extreme DUI conviction could draw greater punishment.