The Minnesota Vikings rolled the dice on wide receiver Jerome Simpson when they gave him a one-year, $2-million contract. Simpson, who spent 15 days in jail last month after pleading guilty to a felony drug charge, is aware of the risk the Vikings took, and he's grateful for getting a second chance in the NFL.
They believed in me and I'm just blessed to have the opportunity to come back and play football again," Simpson recently told Fox Sports North.
"Every team's just going to do that background check and see, 'Was this guy really like this?' And everybody knew that that wasn't me," Simpson added.
"Whatever role that this team has for me, I'm going to fulfill it and go above and beyond," he said.
Simpson says it's been an "up-and-down" seven months since he was charged. He doesn't plan to appeal his three-game suspension, saying he just has to, "accept it right now."
"It's absolutely a 'prove it' (season) just because the nature of that I did get in trouble last year and I have to prove to the league, myself and everybody else out there that I deserve to be in this league. And I deserve to be in this league," he said.
The 2008 second-round pick of the Cincinnati Bengals is coming off his best NFL season, with 50 catches for 725 yards and four touchdowns.
