On Thursday, it was revealed that 49ers fullback Kyle Juszczyk received a $14,926 fine for his “juice” celebration of what appears to be a cracking-of-a-beer motion followed by drinking it. A few hours later, Adam Schefter revealed that Colts guard Matt Goncalves was fined $8,847 for imitating chugging a beer.
Well, the Detroit Lions may have gotten the worst of the NFL’s recent crackdown on celebrations.
In their Thursday night loss to the Buffalo Bills, Lions receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown—along with
Jameson Williams and Jahmyr Gibbs—appeared to pantomime smoking a blunt and passing it around between themselves after scoring a touchdown. And according to St. Brown, the NFL levied a fine for the celebration—one of four fines St. Brown apparently received for Thursday’s game.
“It’s not good, man,” St. Brown said. “$14 (thousand and) something times four. You do the math.”
St. Brown says he plans to appeal the fine.
Here’s a brief video of the celebration, interspersed with St. Brown’s comment, as provided by the Detroit News’ Nolan Bianchi.
There is no specific mention in the NFL rulebook about whether the imitation of drug/alcohol use is considered unsportsmanlike conduct, but the fine letter for Juszcyk and Goncalves justified the fine with the following language:
“Your imitation of chugging a beer constituted an offensive demonstration and could reasonably be construed as being in poor taste”
The closest thing to a specific rule that was broken was this stipulation under unsportsmanlike conduct: Rule 12, Section 3, Article 1, subset d:
Any violent gesture, which shall include, but not be limited to, a throat slash, simulating firing or brandishing a gun, or using the “nose wipe” gesture, or an act that is sexually suggestive or offensive
We’ll see if any of the three offenders win their appeals.
