The NFL fined 49ers fullback Kyle Juszczyk $14,926 on September 24 for a celebration after a Brock Purdy touchdown pass in the Week 2 win over Miami. The league’s letter said his “imitation of chugging a beer constituted an offensive demonstration.”
On Wednesday, the NFL rescinded the fine, because Juszczyk appealed and explained that he was miming a juice box.
Adam Schefter reported the reversal came specifically because the celebration was simulating drinking a juice box, not a beer. That is a real sentence about a real process that cost real money for two weeks.
Juszczyk’s defense was simply the truth
“I wasn’t drinking beer in my celebration,” he said. “When I celebrate, I celebrate by drinking juice, and it’s been that way for years.”
It has. Brock Purdy confirmed it without hesitation. “I’ve seen Juice do his celebration for like five years, or however long I’ve been here,” Purdy said.
The player’s nickname is Juice. He has been doing a juice celebration under that nickname for half a decade on one of the most televised teams in the league. Somebody in the league office watched that and wrote a letter about beer.
The process worked, eventually
Credit where it is due: the appeal system reversed a bad call, and the league did not dig in. Juszczyk got his money back and an acknowledgment that the original ruling was wrong.
The problem is what had to happen for that. A player had to formally contest a five-figure fine and explain the contents of an imaginary beverage. The fine was issued on a Thursday in late September and lifted on a Wednesday in early October.
Context on the fines this season
Juszczyk’s was not the only one. Amon-Ra St. Brown was fined $59,704 for four celebrations and responded with “you do the math.” Dre Greenlaw was fined $11,941 for taunting the Broncos. The league has been aggressive about celebration discipline in 2026, and the enforcement has been uneven enough to become its own story every week.
When the standard is subjective, somebody is going to lose $14,926 over a juice box. That is what happened here.
San Francisco is 4-0 and this is the week’s news
The 49ers are undefeated through four games. Purdy is back. The defense has been dealing with a long injury list that has included Nick Bosa’s calf and Mike Evans’ ribs, and the team keeps winning anyway.
And the thing that traveled furthest out of Santa Clara this week is a fullback getting a fine rescinded for a celebration he has done since 2022.
Juszczyk won. The league admitted it was wrong. The celebration survives. Everyone involved spent two weeks on it.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.