Harvard's most famous fullback just had the best week of his offseason — and it didn't start well.
Kyle Juszczyk caught two passes for 27 yards and a touchdown as the San Francisco 49ers dismantled the Miami Dolphins 35–13 on September 20. After the score, Juszczyk did what he's always done: his signature "Juice" celebration, a nod to his longtime nickname. The NFL saw something different. The league flagged the gesture as a beer-chugging mime, cited Rule 12, Section 3, Article 1, and hit the 10-time Pro Bowler with a $14,926 fine for "engaging in offensive demonstrations."
Juszczyk's first reaction, upon hearing the news from head coach Kyle Shanahan during a Wednesday practice, was disbelief. That's putting it mildly — and it didn't stay private for long.
The Response Goes Viral
Rather than quietly appeal and move on, Juszczyk and wife Kristin leaned in. The couple produced a TikTok video featuring a diamond-encrusted juice box — a direct, three-word message to the league — and it went exactly as viral as you'd expect. The NFL had handed him a megaphone, and he used it. The clip lit up social feeds across the country, turning what would have been a footnote into a full-blown national story.
George Kittle, never one to miss a moment, weighed in with a blunt reaction that amplified the joke further inside and outside the locker room. The 49ers as a whole were publicly amused.
Sports Illustrated went further, pointing out that Juszczyk has been doing the "Juice" celebration — referencing his nickname, not a cold one — for years. The framing of it as a beer chug, the SI piece argued, was simply wrong. Juszczyk filed a formal appeal of the fine, maintaining that the gesture has never been what the NFL claimed.
The story grew a footnote of its own when it emerged that Indianapolis Colts guard Matt Goncalves was separately fined for his own beverage-related celebration the same week, suggesting the league was in a mood to crack down on anything that looked like a drink.
The Fine That Keeps Giving
By September 26, the NFL had compounded its PR problem: Juszczyk was fined a second consecutive week, this time with the league citing "poor taste" as its justification. The double punishment only added fuel. What began as a routine disciplinary notice had, by week's end, become a referendum on the NFL's celebration rules and the league's general tolerance for personality.
For Harvard fans, the arc is a familiar one with Juszczyk. He's spent a career defying the odds stacked against fullbacks in the modern NFL — now he's doing the same against a league office that handed him, inadvertently, one of the better PR weeks of his career.
Elsewhere in Harvard's NFL footprint, defensive end Truman Jones suited up for the Tennessee Titans in their Week 2 loss to Philadelphia, 24–20, though no individual stats were credited to him in the game log.
The Juszczyk saga is ongoing. The appeal is filed. The juice box exists. And $14,926 has never bought the NFL less goodwill.
AI-generated summary
