{"id":101638,"date":"2025-12-19T20:34:07","date_gmt":"2025-12-19T20:34:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/101638\/"},"modified":"2025-12-19T20:34:07","modified_gmt":"2025-12-19T20:34:07","slug":"rams-star-puka-nacua-fined-25000-by-nfl-for-criticizing-referees","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/101638\/","title":{"rendered":"Rams star Puka Nacua fined $25,000 by NFL for criticizing referees"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Puka Nacua<\/a>\u2019s comments about NFL officiating came with a cost \u2014 and not just the distraction the controversy caused the Rams<\/a> before their overtime defeat by the Seattle Seahawks<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The NFL fined the Rams receiver $25,000 for public remarks he made<\/a> about NFL officiating, the league confirmed Friday.<\/p>\n

Nacua caught 12 passes for a career-best 225 yards and two touchdowns against the Seahawks.<\/p>\n

During a livestream<\/a> on Tuesday, with YouTubers N3on and Adin Ross, Nacua said, \u201cThe refs are the worst.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nacua did not stop there.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese guys are lawyers, and like, really, they want to be on TV, too, bro,\u201d Nacua said. \u201cYou don\u2019t think he\u2019s texting his friends in the group chat like, \u2018Yo, you guys just saw me on \u201cSunday Night Football.\u201d Like, that wasn\u2019t [pass interference], but I called it.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

After the loss to the Seahawks, Nacua appeared to double down.<\/p>\n

\u201cCan you say I was wrong,\u201d he posted to X<\/a>. \u201cAppreciate you stripes for your contribution. Lol\u201d<\/p>\n

The post was quickly deleted.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust a moment of frustration after a tough, intense game like that, just thinking of the opportunities that I could have done better to take it out of their hands,\u201d Nacua told reporters in the locker room. \u201cJust a moment of frustration.\u201d<\/p>\n

Coach Sean McVay<\/a> said during his postgame news conference that he had not seen Nacua\u2019s post to X.<\/p>\n

In regard to Nacua\u2019s criticism of officials during the livestream, McVay said, \u201cYeah, we don\u2019t want to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was a tumultuous week for Nacua, who apologized Thursday<\/a> for making a antisemitic gesture during the same livestream, saying he didn\u2019t know that the gesture was considered offensive.<\/p>\n

In addition to Nacua\u2019s fine, the NFL suspended Seahawks linebacker Derick Hall one game for unnecessary roughness and unsportsmanlike conduct for stepping on the leg of Rams guard Kevin Dotson in the first quarter Thursday. Dotson suffered an ankle injury and didn\u2019t return after being carted from the sideline to the locker room.<\/p>\n

Staff writer Sam Farmer contributed to this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Puka Nacua\u2019s comments about NFL officiating came with a cost \u2014 and not just the distraction the controversy…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":101639,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[54611,55365,15692,2424,48,52,51,54608,47,50,49,752,38228,5767,10948,11706,55283,6427,55364,2429,55366],"class_list":["post-101638","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-adin-ross","tag-antisemitic-gesture","tag-fine","tag-friday","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-livestream","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news","tag-nfl","tag-overtime-loss","tag-post","tag-puka-nacua","tag-ram","tag-referee","tag-seattle-seahawks","tag-short-time","tag-thursday","tag-youtubers-n3on"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101638","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=101638"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101638\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/101639"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=101638"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=101638"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=101638"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}