The NFL withdraws Joe Mixon's fine after Appeal wins

NFL star Joe Mixon's wallet won't be lighter by $25,000.

The league overturned a previously taken over fine after the Houston Texans ran, which oversaw criticism of the referee in last month's playoff game.

The Texans were defeated 23-14 on January 18th by the final AFC champion Kansas City Chiefs. Mixon received a fine for his comments after the game after the Texans' defense was penalised twice for a hit at chief quarterback Patrick Mahomes.

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In a letter to Mixon, Appeal Officer Chris Palmer said during the hearing process that Mixon was determined to “not necessarily publicly criticize civil servants.”

When asked about the post-match host, Mixon said, “Everyone knows how it plays here.”

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“You can never put it in refs' hands,” Mixon said. “The whole world sees what it is. At the end of the day, you can never put it in the hands of reference. It's all good.”

The letter added, “The integrity of the game and its officials is the responsibility of everyone involved in the NFL.”

The Houston Texans run through Joe Mixon (Troy Taormina-Immagn image)

“During the appeal hearing, you stated the meaning of your statement referring to the official,” Palmer said in the letter. “You know, statements can be interpreted differently by every individual, and given how impactful your platform is as a player, it clearly understands the weight and disadvantage of public criticism of the authorities. It seems like he's doing that.”

Mixon was originally fined for comments from former Cincinnati recipient TJ Houshmandzadeh posted on social media.

“Why play games when you're with the Chief every 50/50 call,” Houshmandzadeh said, “For X, previously known as Twitter, shows an obvious agreement with running back. I wrote it in.

TJ Houshmandzadeh (Stephen Dunn/Getty Images/file)

This statement was falsely attributed to Mixon in the sports illustrated story.

Later that day, he was fined.

The NFL has reissued the fine for comments Mixon actually made. Sports Illustrated also fixed an error caused by Houshmandzadeh's comment on X due to him.

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Mixon finished the divisional round game with 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.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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