The Cleveland Browns saw multiple players hit with league fines following a Week 4 triumph over the Pittsburgh Steelers, with an official NFL discipline naming Deshaun Watson and reporting identifying additional forfeitures tied to a touchdown celebration that simulated smoking.
Official punishment for Deshaun Watson
The NFL has officially fined Deshaun Watson $14,926 for unsportsmanlike conduct stemming from an illegal celebration and vulgar act during the second quarter of the Browns’ Week 4 game against the Steelers. The league’s release of its Week 4 punishments lists Watson’s forfeiture as an official sanction.
Other Browns players reported to be fined and what happened on the field
Reporting by NBC Sports and Newsweek identifies a second-quarter touchdown celebration in which Quinshon Judkins appeared to take a puff from an imaginary cigarette and pass it to teammates before repeating the motion. NBC Sports described video that shows Judkins miming a puff and handing the object to Austin Barber, then taking another puff and passing it toward Watson.
Those reports say Judkins was fined in connection with that celebration; some outlets list his forfeiture at $14,397, while other reports give Watson's fine as $14,926. Because reports list different totals, accounts vary on the exact fines.
Guard Austin Barber was also reported to have been fined for his participation in the gesture. NBC Sports, Newsweek and Yahoo! News cite a $6,944 fine for Barber tied to the celebration captured on Thursday Night Football.
League enforcement and context
The fines follow the NFL’s review of on-field celebrations and underscore the league’s ongoing enforcement of unsportsmanlike-conduct rules. Video of the play circulated after the game and prompted the league’s disciplinary notices and subsequent reporting about the specific players and forfeitures.
While the official NFL posture on Watson’s penalty is straightforward in the league’s published Week 4 list, reporting outlets have filled in additional details about the celebration and related fines for Judkins and Barber, with some discrepancies in the exact dollar amounts reported for Judkins’ forfeiture.
The Browns now account for several financial penalties tied to that single Week 4 sequence; the team’s victory over the Steelers was marred after the fact by the league’s discipline and media coverage of the celebration that triggered it.
