In Week 2, against the Miami Dolphins, 49ers fullback Kyle Juszczyk celebrated by miming drinking a beverage. The league had earlier ruled that ‘Juice’ had violated Rule 12, Section 3, Article 1 during the act and was labeled as “imitation of chugging a beer.”

However, the league has now admitted to its mistake, asserting that Juszczyk was celebrating drinking a juice box and not a beer, as the Niners had claimed before during a presser.

“The NFL has rescinded the $14,926 fine it imposed on 49ers FB Kyle ‘Juice’ Juszczyk for what it thought was a distasteful celebration of chugging a beer. The league said it was withdrawing the fine ‘because his celebration was simulating drinking a juice box, not a beer… Fine rescinded,” ESPN senior NFL insider Adam Schefter reported Tuesday.

After the fine, Juszczyk responded by clarifying that it was not an alcoholic beverage he was imitating.

“I wasn’t drinking beer in my celebration. I think you guys all know my nickname is Juice. I have ‘Juice’ on my pads. The stadium yells ‘Juice’ when I catch the ball. When I celebrate, I celebrate by drinking juice, and it’s been that way for years. I was as surprised as anybody when I got a fine,” he had earlier said with frustration in his voice.

With the NFL doubling down on strict celebration rules lately, Juszczyk got hit with the fine in the first place. But given how obvious it was that he was just referencing his own nickname and not chugging a beer, his teammate, 49ers tight end George Kittle, took an indirect jab at the league.

“We’re gonna sign a petition: Juice’s new nickname is ‘Beer’ now,” Kittle had joked with a straight face.

Around the same time, Juice had also decided to officially appeal the decision. He even told the press how the appeals process generally works in cases like these. “It’s what I imagine a court hearing would be like. They read your fine and give you the letter of the law,” he explained.

He further talked about how the league would allow him to speak about the day in question and explain the thought process behind his actions, if any. At some point, during this process, the aggrieved party’s agent comes forward to reinforce their point, after which the NFLPA gets to join in. “And then you wait and hear your response,” the fullback explained.

The NFLPA has also been pushing back heavily against the league’s strict crackdown on celebrations. In Week 2 alone, the NFL issued 22 unsportsmanlike conduct fines to 13 different players, with 13 of those penalties handed out specifically for illegal celebrations.

“[Neither] the players nor the union were given notice that these acts would constitute a fine. In some instances, players have been doing these same celebrations for years, and they have never been an issue. We are working with the league on how to resolve the fines from last week and how to ensure players have proper notice going forward,” an NFLPA spokesperson told Front Office Sports.

While all this might seem a bit complicated, in this particular case, Juszczyk’s options were rather limited.

Kyle Juszczyk Pushed Back Against the NFL’s Fine

Other than the fact that Juszczyk’s ‘Juice’ moniker remained self-explanatory to the whole process, the Niners’ fullback also made it a point to call out the inherent hypocrisy of the fine.

“Even if it was beer, I don’t think that should be a problem with all the beer endorsements that we have in the NFL…We have everything. So even if it was beer, which it wasn’t, I still felt like it wasn’t an infraction,” he argued.

Juszczyk, a Harvard graduate, turned 35 this April and is in his 14th year of professional football, 10 of which he has spent with San Francisco. He is also a 10-time Pro-Bowl Fullback and gets serenaded to the chants of ‘Juice’ every time he walks onto the field.

So, naturally, neither fans nor experts ever took too kindly to the fine, especially after Juszczyk went on X immediately after receiving the news of the fine and tweeted, “Can’t make this stuff up.”

Some time later, he got together with his fashion designer wife, Kristin Juszczyk, and together the couple posted a video of them juicing oranges and calling it a “$14,926 glass of orange juice.”

Thankfully, the matter’s closed now…at least for Juszczyk. Unfortunately, Dallas Cowboys tight end Jake Ferguson has also found himself on the receiving end of some prohibition-era-styled moral policing after a fake-beer shotgun celebration over the weekend.