Houston Texans running back Joe Mixon is in the clear after the NFL on Tuesday retracted a $25,000 fine for something Mixon didn’t say.Mixon was dinged for public criticism of the officials after his team’s AFC divisional round loss to the Kansas City Chiefs, yet hearing officer Chris Palmer explained in a letter that he concluded “that (Mixon) did not necessarily publicly criticize the officials.”The referees were under the microscope during the Chiefs’ 23-14 win over the Texans, particularly for a play in which two Houston defenders collided into each other while trying to tackle a sliding Patrick Mahomes, leading to an errant call for a late hit.”You can never leave it into the refs’ hands,” Mixon told reporters after the game. “The whole world sees, man, what it is. When it comes down to it, you can never leave it into the refs’ hands. It’s all good, though.”Mixon appeared to mean that the Texans should have done more so that the result of the game didn’t come down to a few calls by officials. However, that’s not what got Mixon in trouble in the first place.Former Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver T.J. Houshmandzadeh wrote on X, “Why play the game if every 50/50 call goes with the Chiefs,” going on to call the referees trash and biased.A Sports Illustrated article incorrectly attributed the quote to Mixon, which was the basis of the NFL’s fine, according to Mixon and his agent.The NFL then re-issued the fine while centering Mixon’s actual, tamer comments.