Diontae Johnson won’t appeal $25K fine for criticizing officials

The NFL fined Diontae Johnson a cool $25,000 for criticizing the officials. But the Steelers receiver is opting not to appeal the league decision.

This is according to Mike Florio of ProFootballTalk, who reported Thursday that Johnson is accepting the punishment. Florio quoted a source he didn’t publicly identify for the information.

This is all about comments Johnson made in a post-game interview after the Steelers lost a home game to the Jaguars, 20-10, Oct. 29.

“They were calling some stupid stuff,” Diontae Johnson told reporters. “They should get fined for calling bad … making terrible calls and stuff like that. That’s how (angry) I am because they cost us the game. I don’t care what nobody says, they cost us the game.

Johnson also said he “didn’t like the refs today. They must’ve got paid good today or something, but they blew — that field goal, that hurt us coming into the half. We needed that.”

The receiver (and probably all his teammates) didn’t like officials wiping away a field goal late in the first half. Officials flagged the attempt with an offensive offsides. At the time, the Steelers were down 9-3. Pittsburgh was good on a 55-yard field goal. However, the field goal was waved off because of a five-yard penalty on guard Issac Seumalo. Chris Boswell then missed the 60-yarder.

Steelers kicker Chris Boswell’s current Instagram story pic.twitter.com/uXEMYOMHtF

— Amanda Godsey (@AmandaFGodsey) October 29, 2023

Tomlin addressed penalty, but not like Diontae Johnson

Steelers coach Mike Tomlin also addressed the controversial call, but in a far more diplomatic way.

“I didn’t get a lot of dialogue (with the officials)” Tomlin told reporters in post-game. “I hadn’t seen that called in 17 years of standing on the sidelines. Offsides, aligned offsides, on a guard on a field goal protection. It didn’t matter what they said. I hadn’t seen that.”

Seumalo also said that he never received an explanation on why officials thought he was offsides. He said he’s lined up the same way every time he’s on the field for a field goal attempt.

Boswell also criticized the officiating. But unlike Diontae Johnson, Boswell did so without words. Rather, he posted a couple of photos from the kick with some well-placed laughing/crying emojis on his Instagram feed.

Florio noted that Johnson wouldn’t have gotten far if he’d decided to contest the fine. Why? This particular fine isn’t covered by the joint agreement between the NFL and the NFLPA. The league is the lone arbiter on the appeal. And the league probably wasn’t going to back down after a player called out officials the way Johnson did.