Michael Floyd, who was drafted last week by the Arizona Cardinals after a successful career as a wide receiver at Notre Dame, recently told reporters that he thought his DUI arrest was a necessary wake-up call that ultimately helped him mature, according to a report from WNDU News.
Floyd’s drunk driving arrest happened late one night in March 2011, when his white Cadillac ran a stop sign just a block from the main entrance to Notre Dame’s campus.
When police arrested Floyd, they found that his blood alcohol content was 0.19, which is more than twice Indiana’s legal driving limit of 0.08.
According to Floyd, as soon as he was arrested, he “thought it was over.” The term “it” apparently refers to his playing career, which was indeed threatened by his off-the-field activities.
Sources say that the DUI arrest was Floyd’s third encounter with police during his brief tenure in South Bend, Indiana. In May 2009, Floyd was cited for underage drinking, and was also cited for the same charge in January 2010.
Before he was able to return to the team after his DUI, his coach, Brian Kelly, set a series of strict guidelines Floyd had to meet in order to be reinstated to the team. Floyd met these conditions, and ultimately had a stellar senior season for the Fighting Irish.
In addition to his success on the field, Floyd earned his degree in sociology just nine months after his arrest. And Floyd contends that the drunk driving incident forced him to reconsider his priorities as a person and a player.
According to Floyd, he recognized during his junior season that he had to meet a higher standard of behavior than the average college student.
In his words, “[b]eing in the spotlight all the time at Notre Dame, it’s hard to go out. You can’t be very social because there’s always stuff out there, plus media and people’s cellphones and such things like that.”
In recognition of these unique difficulties, Floyd says that he “kind of changed my whole” social scene and he and a small group of friends “kept each other in line and watched out for each other.”
Thanks to his efforts to modify his behavior after his brush with the law, Floyd proved to NFL teams that he could be a reliable professional, and he was rewarded for his efforts by being selected as the 13th overall pick in the 2012 NFL Draft.
