NFL reverses Joe Mixon's fine, cites misattribution of quote ripping refs after Texans' playoff loss
The league overturned the fine it previously handed down after the Houston Texans running back directed some criticism at the referees in a playoff game last month.
The Texans suffered a 23-14 loss to the eventual AFC Champion Kansas City Chiefs on Jan. 18. Mixon received the fine for his comments after the game and after the Texans' defense was penalized twice for hits on Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes.
In a letter to Mixon, appeals officer Chris Palmer said during the hearing process it was determined that Mixon "did not necessarily publicly criticize the officials."
When asked about the officiating after the game, Mixon said, "Everybody knows how it is playing up here."
"You can never leave it into the refs' hands," Mixon said. "The whole world sees, man, what it is. When it comes down to it, you can never leave it into the refs' hands. It's all good, though."
The letter added that "integrity of the game and its officials is the responsibility of everyone involved in the NFL."
"During the appeal hearing, you stated what you meant by your statements referring to the officials," Palmer said in the letter. "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."
Mixon was originally fined for a comment former Cincinnati receiver T.J. Houshmandzadeh posted on social media.
"Why play the game if every 50/50 call goes with the Chiefs," Houshmandzadeh wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter, in a show of his apparent agreement with the running back.
The remark was incorrectly attributed to Mixon in a Sports Illustrated story.
Later in the day, he was fined.
The NFL reissued the fine for the comments Mixon actually made. Sports Illustrated also corrected the error where the comment on X from Houshmandzadeh was attributed to him.
Mixon finished the divisional round game against the Chiefs with 88 rushing yards. He appeared in 14 regular-season games during his first season with the Texans, rushing for 1,016 yards.
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