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Bengals’ Joe Mixon Proposes Coin Flip Option to Pay His Celebration Fine

The Cincinnati ballcarrier made good on his promise after scoring a Week 18 touchdown, but now faces discipline from the league.

Zach Koons

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Bengals running back Joe Mixon made waves around the NFL when he broke out a coin flip celebration after scoring a touchdown in last Sunday’s regular season finale against the Ravens. So much so, that he’s received a fine from the league office. 

However, the Cincinnati ballcarrier doesn’t appear prepared to pay just yet. 

Mixon was fined $13,261 for his touchdown celebration, in which he pulled a coin out of his glove and flipped it while in the end zone, poking fun at the league’s hypothetical coin toss that would’ve played out if the Ravens had beaten the Bengals. The coin toss, which was a part of the NFL’s amended playoff rules in the wake of Damar Hamlin’s medical emergency, would have determined home field advantage for the wild-card game between the two AFC North teams, but ultimately wasn’t needed as Cincinnati trounced Baltimore in Week 18, 27–16. 

Nevertheless, Mixon was fined for his coin flip celebration, which he had done at the request of former franchise legend Chad Johnson. Still, the Bengals running back sounded reluctant to pay the fine to the league, instead suggesting his own “coin flip” to resolve the outstanding payment. 

“@NFL since y’all all about the coin flipping let’s do this. Let’s have a coin toss to pay this crazy fine for expressing myself,” Mixon wrote on Twitter. “If it’s heads I’ll pay. If it’s tails Roger G pay the money to the Boys and Girls Clubs of Cincinnati.”

Shortly before he came up with the proposal for Roger Goodell and the league office, Mixon had tweeted that he was trying to get in touch with Johnson, who had first suggested to the Bengals that someone flip a coin as a part of their touchdown celebration. Johnson caught wind of the running back’s request to get in touch with him and responded saying that he would take care of the fine.

“I’m in town now, just DM the numbers & I’ll write the check,” Johnson wrote in response to Mixon on Twitter.

While it seems unlikely that Mixon will get the NFL commissioner to engage with him on a friendly coin toss, it seems like he’ll have his fine taken care of before the Bengals take the field in the playoffs this Sunday. Cincinnati will play Baltimore for the second week in a row with a spot in the divisional round on the line. Kickoff is at 8:15 p.m. ET on Sunday.

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Zach Koons
ZACH KOONS

Zach Koons is a programming editor at Sports Illustrated who frequently writes about Formula One. He joined SI as a breaking/trending news writer in February 2022 before joining the programming team in 2023. Koons previously worked at The Spun and interned for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He currently hosts the "Bleav in Northwestern" podcast and received a bachelor's in journalism from Northwestern University.

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