Add The California Post on Google We’re throwing the flag on the NFL for this one.
San Francisco 49ers fullback Kyle Juszczyk gestures after a play against the Miami Dolphins during the second half of an NFL football game in Santa Clara, Calif., Sept. 20, 2026. AP Photo/Kelley L Cox The league fined 49ers fullback Kyle Juszczyk $14,926 for an end zone celebration during San Francisco’s Week 2 win over the Dolphins, determining that his imitation of taking a drink amounted to an offensive demonstration.
“Your imitation of chugging a beer constituted an offensive demonstration and could reasonably be construed as being in poor taste,” the league said in its letter.
That is quite a position for a league with an official beer sponsor.
But before we get to the contradiction, we should probably establish what Juszczyk was actually doing.
His nickname is “Juice.” He has performed the celebration for years, explaining that he is simulating drinking juice. He had never previously been fined for it.
Apparently, someone at league headquarters watched a man nicknamed Juice pretend to take a drink and decided the imaginary beverage contained alcohol.
But the league’s reasoning deserves scrutiny even if we accept its interpretation.
The NFL is really going to clutch its pearls over that?
This is a league that gladly attaches its name to beer marketing. Bud Light is its official beer sponsor.
Every stadium across the league is plastered with beer advertisements. You can’t watch an NFL game without seeing a beer commercial.
Pro football has been selling beer almost as long as they’ve been pumping air into the balls and have made billions of dollars in the process.
San Francisco 49ers fullback Kyle Juszczyk (44) celebrates after an NFL football game against the Miami Dolphins in Santa Clara, Calif., Sunday, Sept. 20, 2026. AP Photo/Jed Jacobsohn Who is fooling whom here?
Yet a fullback supposedly pretends to drink one, and that becomes the line the NFL deems too controversial to cross?
Suddenly we need to have a serious discussion about poor taste?
The league has drawn a line in the sand that amounts to this: Do as we say, but don’t do as we do.
We can help market the beverage. You can’t even pretend to consume it.
It doesn’t get much more contradictory than that.
And please spare us the suggestion that questioning this fine means advocating for unrestricted end-zone behavior. The NFL should have standards. It should enforce reasonable boundaries.
A familiar celebration connected to a player’s nickname ought to receive more consideration than a questionable interpretation followed by an invoice.
There is a difference between selling beer and encouraging excessive drinking. But making that distinction would still require the NFL to explain how Juszczyk’s brief, imaginary drink crossed a meaningful line.
Especially when its entire case begins by assuming Juice wasn’t drinking juice.
The letter calls the gesture offensive. It never makes a convincing case for why anyone should be offended.
The league is comfortable profiting from the connection between football and beer while punishing a player for a gesture it believes evokes that very connection?
We’re throwing the challenge flag on this one. Let’s hope the replay booth sees it correctly.
Because Juszczyk’s imaginary beverage isn’t what leaves a bad taste.
