NFL rescinds Kyle Juszczyk's fine, says it misunderstood 'juice box' celebration as chugging beer
SANTA CLARA, Calif. -- The NFL has rescinded the $14,926 fine it imposed on the San Francisco 49ers' Kyle Juszczyk for what it thought was a distasteful celebration of chugging a beer.
The league said it was withdrawing the fine to Juszczyk, whose nickname is Juice, "because his celebration was simulating drinking a juice box, not a beer ... Mr. Juszczyk finally stated that the fine is hypocritical with the amount of Bud Light sponsorships surrounding the NFL."
The league initially fined Juszczyk on Sept. 23 for "engaging in offensive demonstrations." According to the NFL, Juszczyk violated Rule 12, Section 3, Article 1 when he did an "imitation of chugging a beer" two separate times during the Niners' victory over the Miami Dolphins in Week 2.
Juszczyk immediately pushed back against the fine on social media and then held a brief media session during which he took the time to place a jug labeled in big letters "Not Beer" and put one of his thigh pads, emblazoned with a juice box, on his locker as a backdrop for the interview.
When Juszczyk was informed of the fine by Kyle Shanahan, he said he thought his head coach "was just messing with me."
Last Thursday, Juszczyk said he had his appeal hearing on Tuesday and said, "it seemed like it went well." Juszczyk said he believed "things are going to work out OK."
Juszczyk went on to explain how the appeals process works.
"It's what I imagine a court hearing would be like," Juszczyk said. "They read your fine and give you the letter of the law. They let you speak and basically, you explain what happened on the play, what your responsibility was, what you were thinking. And then your agent gets a chance to say what he or she wants to say. The NFLPA gets a chance to chime in and say what they need to say and that's it. And then you wait and hear your response."
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The case Juszczyk made to the league was the same one he made to media during that Sept. 24 session at his locker. Juszczyk has been doing a celebration where he mimics drinking juice for many years. He pointed out that he wears thigh pads with a juice box on them and that Niners fans chant "Juice" whenever he makes a big play.
Juszczyk said he added that even if his celebration had was supposed to be him drinking beer, he didn't believe a fine would be appropriate.
"Even if it was beer, I don't think that should be a problem with all the beer endorsements that we have in the NFL," Juszczyk said. "We have everything. So even if it was beer, which it wasn't, I still felt like it wasn't an infraction."
Juszczyk said he thought the NFL was "going to realize that they made a mistake." That apparently was the case as the league overturned the fine.
According to Juszczyk, the juice celebration and fine led to multiple brands reaching out to him for endorsement possibilities. One of those, OceanSpray, signed Juszczyk to a partnership and is giving away 14,926 bottles of juice as part of that announcement.
ESPN's Adam Schefter contributed to this report.
