NFL Rescinds Juszczyk's $14,926 Juice-Box Fine and Allows Drinking Celebrations

The NFL has admitted it fined the wrong drink. San Francisco 49ers fullback Kyle Juszczyk will not pay the $14,926 fine imposed after Week 2, because an appeals officer accepted what fans had said from the start: the celebration was a juice box, not a beer. The league and the NFLPA then announced on Wednesday that drinking celebrations will not be disciplined at all, Reuters reports.

What did the NFL think Juszczyk was doing?

Chugging a beer, on the record. Juszczyk used his signature sip celebration after catching a touchdown against the Miami Dolphins on September 20, and the league fined him $14,926, telling him his imitation of chugging a beer was an offensive demonstration that could be construed as poor taste, USA Today reports, citing ESPN’s Adam Schefter.

It was, as several reports noted, an odd first: the 14-year veteran has celebrated this way for years as one of the league’s defining fullbacks, and this was the first time it had ever drawn a fine. Juszczyk appealed shortly after the fine landed and posted earlier examples of the same celebration going unpunished, Reuters reports.

What settled the appeal in his favour?

His nickname. Juszczyk is known throughout the league as Juice, and his position was that the sip is a juice box, a claim he underlined by telling Schefter he does not even drink beer, Reuters reports.

An appeals officer jointly appointed and compensated by the NFL and the NFLPA reviewed the case, according to league spokesman Brian McCarthy, and rescinded the fine after accepting that explanation, USA Today reports. Juszczyk marked the decision on X on Wednesday with ‘#FreeJuice’, People reports. There was a smaller second win the same day: his separate Week 1 fine for a helmet block, originally $20,033, was reduced to $16,000, NBC Sports Bay Area reports.

What did the league and union change for everyone else?

The rule itself. In a joint statement, the NFL and NFLPA said recent celebrations imitating drinking a beverage will not be considered violations or result in discipline, Reuters reports. The statement kept the existing bans on gestures depicting violence, weapons, smoking or drug use.

It also changed the process for everything in between. When conduct falls into a gray area, the league will now contact the player and provide direction before imposing discipline, and a player will be advised that continuing the celebration may bring future fines. That is a direct reversal of the sequence Juszczyk lived through: fine first, conversation later, in a week when league discipline had already produced two suspended referees and a union fight over consistency.

Why did this fine attract so much ridicule?

Because the evidence was in the nickname, and the sponsorship was on the stadium walls. J.J. Watt argued publicly that a player called Juice could reasonably be construed to be drinking juice, and Jason Kelce joked that Juszczyk should counter-sue for defamation, People reports.

Juszczyk’s own appeal made the sponsorship point formally: the league’s statement withdrawing the fine recorded his argument that fining a beer mime was hypocritical given the Bud Light sponsorships surrounding the NFL, the New York Post reports. In a season that has already seen a referee flagged for swearing become a national story, the league chose the exit ramp: admit the misread, refund the player, and rewrite the guidance.

What happens next for Juszczyk and the 49ers?

A wait, for an unrelated reason. Juszczyk suffered a knee sprain in the win over Denver last weekend and is expected to miss several weeks, the New York Post reports. San Francisco is 4-0 without needing his celebration, and the discourse has moved on to a broadcaster walking back comments about a retiring tackle.

When he returns, the juice box is legal, for him and for everyone. That is the lasting part of the story: a $14,926 fine for the wrong drink ended with the No Fun League formally permitting the toast.