Kyle Juszczyk has been celebrating on the field with a juice-chugging action for ages. However, things didn’t sit well this time, as the NFL took it as a beer chug imitation after he celebrated a touchdown pass in the game against the Miami Dolphins. And all he did was take his right hand up to his mouth, tilt his head, and pretend to drink from the imaginary bottle.
Watch What’s Trending Now!
The NFL put a $14,926 penalty on Juszczyk for the action. The San Francisco 49ers’ fullback has been arguing that it was juice, not beer, in his actions. Juszczyk recently claimed that even if it was beer, the league shouldn’t have put a fine on him.
“Even if it was beer, I don’t think that should be a problem with all of the beer endorsements that we have in the NFL,” Juszczyk told the media during a locker room interview. “We have the Bud Light Celly Can, the Bud Light Porch… We have everything. So, even if it was beer, which it wasn’t, I still felt like it wasn’t an infraction.”
Back on December 20, 2021, Anheuser-Busch InBev, the brand behind Budweiser, signed a multi-year renewal as the global exclusive beer and hard seltzer sponsor for the league. The extension will last through the 2026-27 season.
Juszczyk further defended his case during his appearance on Jason and Travis Kelce’s New Heights Podcast.
“So my nickname for the longest time has been Juice,” the fullback said on the Kelce brothers’ podcast. “I have literally a juice box on my thigh pad. The whole stadium yells juice when I touch the ball. So, a homage to that is literally I drink juice. And that’s been going down for the longest time.”
However, Travis Kelce wasn’t too convinced. He claimed that the way Juszczyk did it, it looked like beer and not juice. He argued that people don’t usually do a “full chug on a juice.” But that invited another call for hypocrisy from the 49ers fullback.
“You can’t drink juice when you got the Bud Light patio in the end zone. When you’re cutting through the Bud Light celly can. It’s a hypocrisy, man.”
Juszczyk also noted that the NFL didn’t really have to put that big of a fine on him just to make him stop doing something. He claimed that he would have stopped his celebrations had the league asked him to stop. And later, Juszczyk claimed that he doesn’t drink beer.
“I don’t even really drink beer,” he said. “I drink maybe five times a year in the offseason, but I started thinking about it and there are two common denominators of when I do drink alcohol. One of them I was at Bandon Dunes with Travis and George. I was at Tight End U with Travis and George. And I was at Travis’ wedding with Travis and George.”
ESPN’s Nick Wagner reported on X that Juszczyk appeared in court Tuesday to appeal the fine for “chugging a beer.” As of October 1, Juszczyk is awaiting the court’s decision on his appeal. However, Juszczyk believes that things will work out. Even Wagner claimed that good things will come for the 49ers fullback out of the whole situation.
Juszczyk isn’t the only one facing the fines. Indianapolis Colts guard Matt Goncalves received an $8,847 fine, and the Dallas Cowboys tight end Jake Ferguson got a $13,611 fine for mimicking the consumption of a beverage that many assumed to be beer.
The NFL’s decision to fine Kyle Juszczyk for drinking an imaginary beverage while heavily promoting massive beer endorsements made the fullback call out the hypocrisy. But for now, all he needs to do is wait for the court to respond to his appeal.