Earlier this week, the NFL fined Houston Texans running back Joe Mixon a hefty $25,000 for supposedly saying “Why play the game if every 50/50 call goes with Chiefs. These officials are [trash] and bias.”

However, then it turned out that Mixon hadn’t said that at all and that was actually a social media post from his old teammate on the Cincinnati Bengals, former NFL wide receiver T.J. Houshmanzadeh.

In the fallout of the fine, CBS analyst JJ Watt and countless NFL fans online are calling out the league for what they consider to be a “ridiculous” attempt to save face.

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Showing impressive turnaround speed, the NFL hastily changed the source of the fine to a statement Nixon actually did say after the Kansas City Chiefs’ 23-14 victory over the Texans, which was immediately notorious for the number of controversial calls that appeared to favor KC.

“Everybody knows how it is playing up here,” Mixon actually said post-game. “You can never leave it in the refs’ hands. The whole world see, man.”

Mixon has called out the NFL over this fine, posted on X “So let me get this straight NFL fines me 25k for something I didn’t even say. Call them out for it, and they response was fine me AGAIN for something that’s not even a violation without even rescinding the first one. Where’s the accountability? Just respect the players.”

Watts posted disdainfully on social media, saying “This has not received enough attention. . . . He got fined for something he didn’t say. Publicly complained about it (correctly). Then got fined for that. What are we doing here?”

However, while the CBS personality may be a louder voice than most, he’s far from the only one to think that the NFL is overstepping itself on the Mixon fine.

@StrattonCairo posted, “I can understand a fine for criticizing the officiating, publicly. I think that’s something we all would expect to see. Fining a guy for something he didn’t say, and then doubling down however is – just weird. How could the NFL balls this up so badly?”

@MikeCatalana called out the NFL for supposedly enjoying fining players, saying, “Once again, I will say No league enjoys taking money out of the pockets of their players than the NFL It’s punitive and absurd. Tough game played by tough people and the NFL can’t wait to fine them”

@luigicasaretto invoked the hallowed name of the 1990s prank call comedy duo the Jerky Boys, posting, “This just in. “JJ Watt fined by NFL posthumously for defending something Joe Mixon didn’t say and complained about and got fined again for complaining about.” Have you seen the jerky boyz skit where he’s like…”sue everybody”. haha JK i know they can’t fine you but I’m sure they put your name on a list now… lol”

@fdknight called on the NFL player’s union to get involved, saying, “What is the
@NFLPA doing to help Joe Mixon? Seems like a perfect situation for them to handle. I’ve heard/seen nothing from the union making any statements in support of @Joe_MainMixon or contesting the fine.”

Not everyone feels that Mixon was completely blindsided, though.

@tayvis22fever seems to feel that a fine was justified, though not for the original quotes, saying, “The person who drew up the fine needs to be held accountable for including the incorrect quote. However, it does NOT negate what he DID say — everyone knew he’d get slapped with a fine the day the original video dropped. I’m not in favour of normalizing poor sportsmanship… 😒”

In an interesting take, @JohnnyOeleven apparently feels the validity of a fine is tied to one’s net worth, saying, “Joe Mixon’s net worth is $38 million+. I think he will be just fine paying a fine of $25k that is around .06% of said worth. In fact, he should double down, play the fine and then donate $25k more to a charity of his choice. You guys make way too much money to play a game.”

And @StoryoftheYR2 said simply (if not grammatically), “The NFL is hostile to it’s players.”

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