The NFL has rescinded a $25,000 fine Houston’s Joe Mixon received for comments about officiating in the Texans’ loss to the Kansas City Chiefs in the divisional round of the playoffs after an appeal by the running back.
Mixon was given the fine for his comments following the 23-14 loss where Houston’s defense was penalized twice for hits on quarterback Patrick Mahomes.
Appeals officer Chris Palmer said in a letter to Mixon, which was obtained by ESPN.com, that during the hearing process on Jan. 30 he found 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.”
Palmer said in his letter to Mixon that the “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 X in agreeing with the running back, which was incorrectly attributed to Mixon in a Sports Illustrated story.
Later on 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.
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The Associated Press
