It took nearly a month, but Houston Texans running back Joe Mixon will not have to pay a fine for comments—both those he made and those he didn't—about officials after his team's playoff loss to the Kansas City Chiefs.
Mixon was initially fined $25,000 after a tweet saying, "Why play the game if every 50/50 call goes with Chiefs. These officials are [trash] & bias." The problem? It wasn't sent by Mixon, but former Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver T.J. Houshmandzadeh.
The fine was re-issued after Mixon pushed back, hitting him with a new $25,000 penalty for much less severe comments that he actually made about officiating during games against the Chiefs: “Everybody knows how it is playing up here. You can never leave it into the refs’ hands. The whole world sees, man, what it is, bro. But it is what it is.”
Mixon's agent Peter Schaffer vowed to fight the fine, and on Tuesday the Texans running back won an appeal.
“During the appeal hearing, you stated what you meant by your statements referring to the officials,” hearing officer Chris Palmer, a longtime former NFL assistant coach, wrote in his decision per ProFootballTalk.
“As you know, statements can be interpreted differently by every individual and it seems like you clearly understand the weight and detriment of public criticism towards officials can be, given how impactful your platform is as a player, which I appreciate. Integrity of the game and its officials is the responsibility of everyone involved in the NFL. After reviewing the totality of the evidence. I find that you did not necessarily publicly criticize the officials. Accordingly for the reasons set forth above, the NFL will rescind the $25,000 fine amount.”
Mixon's actual comments certainly featured a tinge of aggravation towards the officials, but, "You can never leave it into the refs' hands" is probably not fine-worthy.
After plenty of confusion on the league's part, common sense prevailed here.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Joe Mixon Reportedly Wins Appeal on Strange Fine for Ref Critique.
