The biggest story of the NFL postseason, aside from the Kansas City Chiefs attempting, and failing, to get Patrick the hat trick, was the perceived favoritism the Chiefs enjoyed from officials. Some fans around the league (outside of Kansas City) felt the Chiefs benefited from borderline calls that other teams, including the Houston Texans, simply didn’t get. Or, at the very least, didn’t get as consistently. The accusations became so prevalent that Chiefs players were repeatedly asked to address the controversy leading up to the Super Bowl, with head coach Andy Reid firing back at the alleged officiating conspiracy.
As long as humans are involved in making decisions on the field in a fast-paced game, there are going to be mistakes. And it’s human nature to err on the side of the team that always seems to have a competitive advantage week-in week-out. But in Joe Mixon’s case, officials handed down a call long after the game was over, levying a $25,000 fine on the player. And, after having time to evaluate the highly suspect decision, officials doubled down on Mixon’s fine.
However, the Texans’ veteran running back would not quietly accept his penalty, as Mixon appealed the $25K fine imposed by the league and, ultimately, he won the case, according to NFL on ESPN.
Texans RB Joe Mixon took on the NFL over bad Chiefs-related fine
The saga started following the Texans’ 32-14 divisional round defeat to the Chiefs on January 18. Mixon was fined $25,000 for comments the league thought he made about officiating in the game.
What Mixon actually said was, “Everybody knows how it is playing up here. You can never leave it into the refs’ hands… The whole world sees, man, what it is. When it comes down to it, you can never leave it into the refs’ hands. It’s all good, though.”
The innocuous and undeniably accurate statement isn’t what initially landed Mixon in hot water with the league. Officials took issue with a different statement: “Why play the game if every 50/50 call goes with the Chiefs. These officials are [trash] & bias.” The only issue? Mixon didn’t say that. Former Bengals wideout T.J. Houshmandzadeh did.
It stands to reason that the NFL would recognize its mistake in misattributing the statement and quickly exonerate Mixon of any wrongdoing. Unfortunately, the league chose instead to double down on penalizing the running back despite acknowledging that Houshmandzadeh was responsible for the offending assertion.
“So let me get this straight. [The] NFL fines me 25k for something I didn’t even say… [I] Call them out for it, and their response was fine me AGAIN for something that’s not even a violation without even rescinding the first one,” Mixon wrote on X in an attempt to wrap his head around the Kafkaesque situation created and then exacerbated by the league.
Misattributed post-game comments aside, the Texans were unhappy with perceived favoritism for the Chiefs during the contest. Head coach DeMeco Ryans was not shy in stating his belief that Patrick Mahomes benefited from two questionable roughing the passer penalties that kept drives alive and resulted in a combined 10 points for Kansas City. Ultimately, the Texans drew eight penalties for 82 yards compared to the Chiefs’ four flags for 29 yards. Ryans asserted that his team recognized going into the game that “It was us versus everybody. And I mean everybody.”
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