Joe Mixon's $25K Fine for Criticizing Officials After Texans-Chiefs Rescinded by NFL

The NFL has rescinded the $25,000 fine it levied against running back Joe Mixon for comments it originally stated were publicly critical of the officials after the Houston Texans' loss to the Kansas City Chiefs in the AFC Divisional Round.

"During the appeal hearing, you stated what you meant by your statements referring to the officials,” hearing officer Chris Palmer said in his decision. "As you know, statements can be interpreted differently by every individual and it seems like you clearly understand the weight and detriment of public criticism towards officials can be, given how impactful your platform is as a player, which I appreciate."

"Integrity of the game and its officials is the responsibility of everyone involved in the NFL," he continued. "After reviewing the totality of the evidence, I find that you did not necessarily publicly criticize the officials. Accordingly for the reasons set forth above, the NFL will rescind the $25,000 fine amount."

The entire situation has been a bit bizarre.

Mixon's original postgame comments were that "you can never leave it into the refs' hands" while speaking about the 23-14 loss, which included controversial roughing the passer and unnecessary roughness penalties on the defense.

As Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk noted, "The league initially fined Mixon for something that he didn’t say; the critical words ('Why play the game if every 50/50 call goes with Chiefs. These officials are trash and bias.') came on social media from former Bengals receiver T.J. Houshmandzadeh. Once the league realized that it misread the SI.com article on the matter, it re-fined Mixon for what he did say, which was far tamer."

Mixon, meanwhile, was flabbergasted by the entire ordeal:

Mixon's appeal eventually won out, however.

His frustration with the officiating was clearly shared in Houston. Defensive end Will Anderson, in particular, didn't hold back.

"We knew it was going to be us against the refs going into this game," he told reporters after the loss. "I talked to you guys earlier this week. I was just saying, I'm like, 'Man, we gotta go out there and we gotta do us better.' In some instances we didn't do that, in some instances we did. We just gotta keep going man. Next offseason, getting guys together, everybody just coming together and just keep building that team chemistry and getting past this hump."

Those comments earned Anderson a $25,000 fine. However, Dianna Russini of The Athletic reported on Tuesday that Anderson's fine was also rescinded after appeal.

Head coach DeMeco Ryans was a touch more subtle.

"We knew going into this game, man, it was us versus everybody," he told reporters. "When I say everybody, I mean everybody. The naysayers, the doubt. Everybody, we had to go against again today. Going into this game knowing what we were up against, we can't make the mistakes we made."