It’s been over a week since Kyle Juszczyk began the appeal process for his $14,926 fine where he performed his iconic drinking juice celebration.
On Thursday, the 49ers’ 10-time Pro Bowler spoke with reporters about what it’s been like going through the appeal process.
“It’s what I imagine a court hearing would be like. They read your fine and give the letter of the law,” Juszczyk said. “They let you speak, and you basically explain what happened on the play. What your responsibility was. What you were thinking.”
Juszczyk then added that players’ agents will get the chance to say what they want to say, the NFL Players Association gets a chance to speak, and then the player will have to wait to hear their response.
As of now, the result of his appeal has not been determined, as the timeline has no estimate and can take up to a few weeks to a few months.
Juszczyk said he is still waiting to hear back on the fine and is hopeful everything will work out.
As for the league’s decision to fine him, Juszczyk is still upset about it.
When Juszczyk found out he was being fined, the league sent him a letter that said: “Your imitation of chugging a beer constituted an offensive demonstration and could reasonably be construed as being in poor taste.”
While he said he wasn’t drinking beer during the celebration, he added that he doesn’t think pretending to drink it should result in a fine.
Juszczyk also went on to call out the NFL’s sponsorship with Bud Light who serves as the official beer and hard seltzer sponsor.
“With all of the beer endorsements that we have in the NFL,” Juszczyk said. “…Even if it was beer, which it wasn’t, I still felt like it wasn’t an infraction.”
Hours after his fine went public, Bud Light commented on his teammate George Kittle’s post on X, where he confirmed Juszczyk doesn’t drink beer.
On Friday, Bud Light took the fine to a new level when they launched their new marketing strategy called the “Celly Jar” which will give fans a total of $37,384. The same amount the NFL fined Juszczyk, Colts guard Matt Goncalves, and Cowboys tight end Jake Ferguson for having drinking celebrations last week.
While Juszczyk has been frustrated by the league, the day he came home from practice after receiving the fine, he and his wife, Kristin Juszczyk, decided to have fun with the situation by creating a TikTok of them passively aggressively making juice from their home.
