Texans RB Joe Mixon Fined $25,000 For Comments He Didn't Make

The AFC Divisional Round of the NFL Playoffs was filled with excellent games, with the most controversial being the Kansas City Chiefs' victory over the Houston Texans.

While the 23-14 victory seems definitive, there were multiple officiating calls favoring quarterback Patrick Mahomes that seemed blatant and unnecessary.

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Multiple football experts spoke about the calls, including multiple players on the Texans roster.

Unfortunately, this resulted in a $25,000 fine for running back Joe Mixon. The only problem is that he didn't actually say the comments he was being fined for.

Originally, the fine was for the following quote: "Why play the game if every 50/50 call goes with Chiefs. These officials are [trash] and bias."

However, Mixon didn't say it. It was instead posted by former NFL wide receiver T.J. Houshmanzadeh, who played with Mixon on the Cincinnati Bengals.

What Mixon actually said was "Everybody know how it is playing up here. You can never leave it in the refs hands. The whole world see, man."

This seems less like a criticism of the referees and more of a comment on playing your best game in spite of the officiating. An entire video of the interview was shared on X (formerly Twitter) by Will Kunkel of Fox 26 Houston.

The matter wasn't corrected until Mixon called out the NFL himself on X.

"I'm getting fined by the [NFL] for what someone else said," Mixon said. "What's next? I get fined by them for Connor McDavid cross checking an opponent on a [NHL] game!"

Mixon then pointed out that he was being fined for the max amount.

The NFL then responded to the situation by sending a second $25,000 fine for the original comment he said after the game without rescinding the original fine.

"So let me get this straight," Mixon said. "NFL fines me 25k for something I didn't even say. Call them out for it, and they response was fine me AGAIN for something that's not even a violation without even rescinding the first one. Where's the accountability? Just respect the players."

Mixon's agent Peter Schaffer also called out the NFL, per a report from The Athletic's Alex Andrejev with contributions from Mike Jones.

"They didn't say in this (second) letter, we hereby rescind the original letter," Schaffer said. "They just said, here's another letter. So now we have two letters, two fines, for two different quotes. One he didn't say. One he doesn't publicly criticize the officiating (by) the game officials. He's criticizing his own players."

"I will defend Joe's rights and then we'll take all legal recourse after," Schaffer concluded.

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