NFL and NFLPA Issue Joint Statement Legalizing Drinking-Like Celebrations After Rescinding Fines for Kyle Juszczyk and Others
from Essentially Pro Football and the NFL
At Levi’s Stadium, Kyle Juszczyk has a name the crowd has learned to shorten. “Juice!” rings out when the 49ers fullback makes a play. It has turned a difficult last name into a nickname that has followed him through his career, even appearing on his gear. By now, it is part of how San Francisco knows him. Juszczyk has played into it, too.
After big plays, he has occasionally brought his hands to his mouth and gone through the motions of downing a drink, a quick celebration that turns “Juice” into a visual joke. It takes only a few seconds, but there is little to mistake once you know what he is doing. That familiar routine, however, became expensive not so long ago. Juszczyk was handed two $14,926 fines after the NFL interpreted the gesture as him pretending to chug alcohol. But once he explained during his appeal, the league reversed course.
“The league has clarified that celebrations depicting drinking a beverage will not be violations nor result in discipline,” senior NFL insider at ESPN Adam Schefter wrote on X. “An example of the NFLPA and the league trying to work together to solve an issue.”
And the reversal has left the NFL having to explain not just what players can celebrate, but where the line was drawn in the first place.
“The league has clarified that celebrations depicting drinking a beverage will not be violations nor result in discipline,” senior NFL insider at ESPN Adam Schefter wrote on X. “An example of the NFLPA and the league trying to work together to solve an issue.”
The distinction matters because the league is not saying players can actually drink alcohol during games. It is saying that mimicking the act of drinking a beverage, whether the imaginary drink is beer, juice or Gatorade, will not, by itself, draw discipline.
The clarification also changed how ambiguous celebrations will be handled going forward, while also noting that other celebrations will remain prohibited and can result in a “15-yard unsportsmanlike conduct penalty, a fine, or both.”
These include gestures that depict violence, such as using guns or other weapons, or gang-related signs; gestures that depict smoking or substance use; and gestures that are sexual in nature.
This comes after the league had earlier fined Juszczyk and others for pantomiming drinking a beer, after which some of the players had appealed their fines. Juszczyk was earlier fined twice for $14,926 each in Week 2 for a celebration in which he was pretending to chug “Juice,” also his nickname, but the NFL classified it as an imitation of chugging beer and fined him accordingly.
The fine was particularly difficult for Juszczyk to understand because the celebration was not something he had invented for that afternoon. He has used variations of the “Juice” routine after touchdowns before, and when the NFL first fined him, he pointed to old examples of the celebration as part of his appeal. He also made his feelings clear away from the hearing, placing a container on his locker wrapped in white paper with “NOT BEER” written across it and displaying a picture of a juice box with his No. 44 on it.
“That’s the other side of it, is I don’t even drink beer,” Juszczyk said at the time. He joked that he might have a drink only about five times a year in the offseason, usually with teammate George Kittle, who he said “peer pressures” him.
Dallas Cowboys tight end Jake Ferguson was also among the ones who were fined $13,611 for a similar celebration in Week 2, which the NFL deemed as “shotgunning a beer” and described as an “offensive demonstration” and “vulgar act.” Ferguson later explained that the pantomime was an homage to an invisible, ice-cold Gatorade, something he has said he regularly shotguns during practices.
Ferguson’s explanation did not remain only a player’s defense. His fine, like Juszczyk’s, was later rescinded by an appeals officer on Wednesday as the league and NFLPA worked toward clearer guidance.
There was a third player caught in the same confusion. Indianapolis Colts guard Matt Goncalves was fined $8,847 after mimicking drinking from a football handed to him by teammate Tyler Warren following a touchdown. As of Wednesday, however, Goncalves had not yet been informed that his fine was rescinded, so his case should not be grouped with Juszczyk’s and Ferguson’s as a confirmed reversal.
The decision may not have come so easily, as the NFL was being criticized earlier specifically for handing out fines for pantomiming drinking, with fans calling it hypocrisy, as the NFL has partnerships with multiple alcohol brands. The league announced Jameson as its official spirits sponsor in July, adding another prominent alcohol partnership just months before the celebration dispute.
Juszczyk himself raised the sponsorship issue during his appeal, pointing to the uncomfortable contrast between the league’s commercial relationship with alcohol brands and its punishment of a player for mimicking a drink. That criticism became part of the wider debate around the fines, even though the NFL’s eventual clarification was framed around player expression and clearer enforcement rather than its sponsorship deals.
The controversy also landed differently inside the 49ers locker room. Juszczyk has been the team’s nominee for the Art Rooney Sportsmanship Award for six straight seasons, and his teammates have treated the entire episode with the same humor that surrounded his nickname. After the league reversed course, linebacker Fred Warner laughed that he might have to start planning his own drink-themed celebration.
“It is great for Juice because he’s been doing that same celebration for years,” Warner said. “Just try to have a little fun out there. That’s what the league’s about.”
It was also the scale of the celebration crackdown that had players and the NFLPA concerned, with the executive director of the NFLPA, JC Tretter, addressing players’ concerns in a statement.
“Over Weeks 2 and 3, there were 20 fines for celebrations — an unusual spike,” Tretter said. “All 20 fines were appealed and are now before the neutral appeal officers, with some already being overturned.”
That number is what turned a few unusual fines into a broader player-relations issue. Juszczyk’s case was no longer just about whether a hand gesture looked like a beer chug. Players were also asking how they were supposed to know which celebrations had crossed the line before thousands of dollars were taken from them.
The NFL clarifies about informing players during “gray area” situations
The NFL and NFLPA’s joint statement clarified the rules after the recent wave of celebration fines. The organizations said the goal was to draw a clearer line between player expression and conduct that could warrant discipline, while acknowledging that celebrations are part of how players connect with fans.
That distinction is important because the new guidance does not give players a free pass to imitate anything they want. Tretter said the NFLPA had pushed for greater clarity around what celebrations would be deemed an “illegal celebration” or an “obscene gesture.”
Tretter said that the NFLPA “raised this issue and pushed for greater clarity around what will and won’t result in discipline.”
But the problems didn’t end there. Juszczyk earlier said that he came to know about both of his fines “by somebody else before the league told” him, and that bothered him. Tretter said that the NFLPA addressed this “gray area” with the league as well.
“When something falls into a gray area, communication and education should come before punishment. We’re glad the league will seek to educate players before immediately defaulting to a fine,” Tretter said.
The new agreement now puts that principle into the process. When a celebration falls into a gray area, the league will contact the player and provide direction before imposing discipline. The player can be told that continuing with the same celebration could lead to future fines.
That is a notable change from what Juszczyk described happening to him: finding out that his celebration was a problem after the fine had already arrived.
For now, though, the clearest line has been drawn around the gesture that started the fight. Players can mimic drinking a beverage without worrying that the motion alone will cost them a fine.