The NFL has upheld a three-game suspension for Minnesota Vikings receiver Jerome Simpson for a drunken-driving arrest last November, a league source told ESPN NFL Insider Adam Schefter.
One of Simpson's attorneys, David Valentini, attended his client's recent appeal hearing and said that the league had regarded Simpson as a repeat offender of its substance-abuse policy, even though the incident was his first alcohol-related offense.
Simpson's attorneys had argued that he should not face a suspension after he was arrested Nov. 9 in Minneapolis. Simpson later pleaded guilty to careless driving and refusing to submit to a chemical test, and completed his community service requirement for the offense this spring.
Simpson was suspended by the league for the first three games of the 2012 season after he pled guilty to mailing two pounds of marijuana to his house in Kentucky while he was playing for the Cincinnati Bengals. He served 15 days in jail for that offense, and was placed on three years' probation. Following his drunken-driving arrest, Simpson's probation was transferred from Kentucky to Minnesota.
The Vikings re-signed Simpson to a one-year, $1 million deal this spring, and he has been listed as the No. 3 receiver on the team's depth chart. He caught 48 passes for 726 yards and a touchdown last season.