The Minnesota Vikings have released suspended wide receiver Jerome Simpson. He was scheduled to be eligible to be reinstated following Week 3.
An incident report released Thursday detailed an incident in July when Simpson was cited by Bloomington, Minn., police for having marijuana and an open bottle of alcohol in his car while driving on a restricted driver's license.
Simpson was ticketed, but not arrested despite violating terms of probation from a 2013 arrest.
Simpson was serving a three-game suspension to start this season for that November drunken-driving arrest.
He served a three-game suspension in 2012 with Minnesota after being convicted of a felony for mailing two pounds of pot to his Kentucky home while he was playing for the Cincinnati Bengals.
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Simpson had been scheduled to be eligible to be reinstated following Week 3
Bloomington police said the officers who stopped Simpson were following the law when they cited Simpson for misdemeanor charges of driving on a restricted license, marijuana possession and having an open bottle of alcohol in a motor vehicle.
"If he had a felony amount (of marijuana) or was engaged in dangerous criminal activity, the officers could have arrested and booked him," Richard Hart, deputy chief of police, told the Pioneer Press on Thursday. "He had valid ID. There wasn't any reason to arrest, and the officers were right to cite him."
Simpson entered into a plea deal on the November drunken driving charges and pleaded guilty to careless driving and refusing to submit to a chemical test. In return, he received two years' probation with the conditions he would not have any alcohol- or drug-related traffic offenses and no driver license violations.
