While many in the NFL world are trying to make sense of the situation involving Joe Mixon and what he did, and more importantly, did not say, J.J. Watt summarized it quite impressively Friday in an X post calling out the league. For those who missed the bizarre story involving Mixon, the NFL fined the Houston Texans running back for something he allegedly said after the team’s loss to the Kansas City Chiefs in the Divisional Round. The NFL fined him $25,000 for allegedly saying, “Why play the game if every 50/50 call goes with the Chiefs? These officials are trash and biased.” Yet Mixon never said that; former Bengals star T.J. Houshmandzadeh made the remark, which appeared in a media report. After Mixon complained about the fine on social media (“What’s next? I get fined by them for Connor McDavid cross-checking an opponent in an NHL game?”), the NFL reissued the fine for something else Mixon said that might be construed as mildly critical of the officiating.
Watt checked in on the issue Friday in a terse X post calling out the NFL. The NFL Today analyst reposted a Pro Football Talk story about the original fine, stating: “This has not received enough attention. He got fined for something he didn’t say. Publicly complained about it (correctly). Then got fined for that. What are we doing here?”
This has not received enough attention…
He got fined for something he didn’t say.
Publicly complained about it (correctly).
Then got fined for that.
What are we doing here? https://t.co/JcPssBjocx
— JJ Watt (@JJWatt) January 24, 2025
Mixon’s actual comment that led the NFL to reissue the fine is hardly incendiary: “Everybody knows how it is playing up here. You can never leave it in the refs’ hands. The whole world sees, man,” Mixon said. His agent, Peter Schaffer, told Pro Football Talk they would “defend and appeal” the fine. While Mixon didn’t explicitly call out the officiating in the Chiefs-Texans game, others did. ESPN analyst Troy Aikman disagreed with a key roughing the passer call against Houston, stating, “Oh come on,” as the call was announced for another play involving an unnecessary roughness penalty for a hit on Patrick Mahomes.
Rules analyst Russell Yurk concurred with Aikman on both calls: “Oh, come on! I mean, he’s a runner. I could not disagree with that one more. He barely gets hit,” Aikman commented, while Yurk added, “The two Houston players hit each other. That should not have been a foul.” Aikman concluded, “They’ve gotta address it in the offseason…”
Watt, a former three-time NFL Defensive Player of the Year, joined The NFL Today after retiring in 2022.
