Kyle Juszczyk had apparently reached the point where even his drinks needed an explanation. Before speaking to reporters Thursday, the 49ers fullback placed a jug wrapped in tape at his locker and wrote two words across it in large letters: “NOT BEER.” Beside it sat one of his thigh pads, complete with the juice-box graphic bearing his No. 44. 

The setup was partly a defense and partly a joke.  George Kittle had jokingly started calling him “Beer” instead of “Juice,” while Juszczyk kept pointing back to the celebration that had started it all: the head tilt, the hand to the mouth and the imaginary chug. But what looked like a locker-room joke had already cost him nearly $15,000, and Juszczyk wasn’t convinced the NFL had much of a case. 

“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.” 

What the NFL Actually Fined Juszczyk For

The NFL’s rules do not contain a specific prohibition against “beer celebrations.” Instead, the league has broader unsportsmanlike-conduct provisions covering prolonged or excessive celebrations and the use of objects as props.

The language in Juszczyk’s fine letter focused on the gesture itself. The NFL described his imitation of chugging a beer as an “offensive demonstration” that could “reasonably be construed as being in poor taste.”

That distinction matters. The league was not saying Juszczyk had actually been drinking alcohol on the field. It was treating the simulated drinking motion as an unsportsmanlike act under its existing celebration rules. But the fine was only one part of what made the league’s decision stand out, Juszczyk’s defense itself was not new.

The NFL Had Seen the Celebration Before

Juszczyk’s defense goes beyond insisting that the drink in his imaginary celebration was juice. The gesture itself was not new.

The 49ers fullback has been using the celebration for years, tying it to the “Juice” nickname that follows him around San Francisco. Fans have yelled “Juice” at games, the nickname appears on his No. 44 thigh pad, and Juszczyk has repeatedly explained that the drinking motion was supposed to represent exactly that: drinking juice.

That history is important because the NFL had already seen him make the same gesture before. A photo from San Francisco’s December 2022 game against Miami shows Juszczyk making the same drinking motion, yet he was not fined for it at the time. The NFL Players Association later pointed to that history while arguing that players had not been given notice that such celebrations would suddenly be treated as finable offenses.

That made the 2026 penalty feel different to Juszczyk, not to mention that it came with a steep price for him– twice.

During the 49ers’ 35-13 win over the Dolphins on September 20, Juszczyk first made the gesture after hauling in a 21-yard reception. Four plays later, he caught a six-yard touchdown pass from Brock Purdy and repeated it.

The NFL issued two separate $14,926 fines, one for each celebration, bringing the total to $29,852 from the same game.

That was the moment the joke surrounding “Beer” became more than a nickname.

Juszczyk has since made his position clear: he would have stopped the celebration if the league had simply told him it was against the rules. Instead, he found himself appealing two fines for a gesture he believed had always been understood as an ode to his nickname.

Why Juszczyk Says It Was Juice, Not Beer

Juszczyk gave the same explanation on New Heights, where he tried to settle the question at its simplest level.

His nickname is Juice. The juice box is on his thigh pad. The crowd chants “Juice.” So, in his telling, the celebration is simply him pretending to drink juice.

Travis Kelce, however, was not entirely sold on the explanation.

Kelce pointed out that it looked like a beer celebration, arguing that people do not normally perform a full chug of a juice. That left Juszczyk caught between two interpretations of the same gesture: the one he intended and the one the NFL believed it represented.

But there was another reason Juszczyk felt the league’s interpretation was difficult to square with what happens around NFL games every week.

The Bud Light Problem

The NFL has had a multi-year relationship with Anheuser-Busch, with Bud Light serving as the league’s official beer sponsor. That partnership extends directly into the way the NFL markets celebrations themselves.

Bud Light has promoted NFL-themed cans, touchdown celebrations and branded experiences around the league. Juszczyk specifically pointed to the Bud Light Celly Can and Bud Light Porch while making his argument.

“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 said.

That was the heart of his complaint. He was not arguing that the NFL had no authority to regulate celebrations. He was questioning why an imaginary drinking motion could be treated as an offensive demonstration when the league itself has spent years building beer into the celebration environment around its games.

And Juszczyk was not the only player to run into the same line between a simulated drink and an NFL violation.

Other Players Were Fined for Similar Celebrations

Juszczyk’s fines came alongside penalties for other players whose celebrations were interpreted as drinking-related.

Colts guard Matt Goncalves was fined $8,847 after mimicking popping the top off a can and drinking following a touchdown against the Chiefs. Cowboys tight end Jake Ferguson was fined $13,611 after appearing to shotgun a beer during his celebration.

The three fines totaled $37,384.

Bud Light did not exactly shy away from that number. The brand leaned into the controversy, referring to the money as a “Celly Jar” and asking how many beers the $37,384 could buy for everyone that weekend.

That response created an unusual sequence: the league fined players for celebrations that evoked drinking, while its official beer sponsor immediately found a way to turn those same fines into marketing.

For Juszczyk, that was precisely why the NFL’s decision was so difficult to understand.

Juszczyk’s Case Came During a Wider Celebration Crackdown

Still, the NFL’s enforcement was not limited to drinking gestures.

Week 2 produced 38 fines across 2,526 plays, compared with 20 fines in Week 1. Several of those penalties fell under the league’s “Illegal celebrations and vulgar acts” category.

Amon-Ra St. Brown, for example, was fined four times for smoking-related celebrations, with the penalties totaling nearly $60,000. Other players also received fines for gestures the league considered inappropriate.

So Juszczyk’s case was part of a broader push to enforce the NFL’s existing celebration rules more aggressively. What made his situation particularly unusual was the combination of the gesture’s long history, the absence of an actual drink, and the league’s own extensive relationship with beer branding.

It also explains why Juszczyk has focused so heavily on the idea that players were not given a clear warning that these celebrations would now draw fines.

Now Juszczyk Is Waiting on His Appeal

Juszczyk is appealing the penalties, but the process is not a court hearing in the traditional sense.

His case goes before a jointly appointed appeals officer, who reviews the play and the circumstances before issuing a final, binding decision. Juszczyk recently described the process as being somewhat like what he imagines a court hearing would feel like: the league presents its position, the player explains what happened and why, and the player’s representatives and the NFLPA can also make their case.

As of October 2, Juszczyk was still waiting for the decision.

For someone who says he barely drinks beer and has always viewed the celebration as a nod to his “Juice” nickname, the situation has already become considerably larger than one gesture after one touchdown.

He and his wife, Kristin, even leaned into the joke away from the stadium, posting a video of themselves slicing and juicing oranges and calling it a “$14,926 glass of orange juice.”

For now, though, the NFL still has the final say on whether that particular glass of “juice” cost Juszczyk $29,852, or whether his appeal will finally settle the difference between what he meant and what the league saw.