{"id":652489,"date":"2026-01-04T05:31:21","date_gmt":"2026-01-04T05:31:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/652489\/"},"modified":"2026-01-04T05:31:21","modified_gmt":"2026-01-04T05:31:21","slug":"nfl-makes-punishment-decision-on-justin-herbert-incident","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/652489\/","title":{"rendered":"NFL Makes Punishment Decision on Justin Herbert Incident"},"content":{"rendered":"

Justin Herbert and the\u00a0Los Angeles Chargers<\/a>\u00a0are headed to the NFL playoffs<\/a> despite a 20-16 loss to the\u00a0Houston Texans<\/a> in Week 17. With the AFC West division title out of reach, Herbert is resting for the Chargers’ final regular season game against the Denver Broncos<\/a> on Sunday.<\/p>\n

However, the Los Angeles quarterback was involved in a play in last week’s game that resulted in the NFL<\/a> handing out a $12,172 fine for Houston defensive end Denico Autry on Saturday.<\/p>\n

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At the 0:40 mark of the second quarter, Autry sacked Herbert on first-and-10 for what appeared to be a 14-yard loss. In order to bring Herbert down, the veteran pass rusher extended his leg, tripping the Chargers quarterback.<\/p>\n

It resulted in a 15-yard penalty after Autry was flagged for a tripping violation. Tripping is defined by the NFL<\/a> as “use of the leg or foot to obstruct any opponent, including a runner.”<\/p>\n

As Athlon Sports’ Paolo Songco noted<\/a>, the standard punishment for tripping an opponent is a fine of $12,172 for a first offense and $17,968 for a second. After the NFL’s weekly review<\/a> of on-field, safety-related incidents, Autry received the lighter fine since it was his first infraction for “striking\/kicking\/tripping\/kneeing” this season.<\/p>\n

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\"Los<\/p>\n

Los Angeles Chargers quarterback Justin Herbert (10) is sacked by Houston Texans defensive end Denico Autry (96) during the first half at SoFi Stadium.Gary A&period; Vasquez-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

Autry has the option to appeal the fine. It is the third fine of his career, during which the 35-year-old has earned a combined $58.5 million<\/a> with the Oakland Raiders (now Las Vegas Raiders<\/a>), Indianapolis Colts<\/a>, Tennessee Titans<\/a> and the Texans.<\/p>\n

Autry and the Texans take on his former team, the Colts, in Week 18, Sunday, Jan. 4 at 1 p.m. ET. Houston can still win the AFC South and earn the No. 3 seed with a win and a Jacksonville Jaguars<\/a> loss on Sunday.<\/p>\n

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Related: Justin Herbert’s Girlfriend Madison Beer Announces News Amid Relationship With Chargers QB<\/a><\/p>\n

This story was originally published by Athlon Sports<\/a> on Jan 3, 2026, where it first appeared in the NFL<\/a> section. Add Athlon Sports as a Preferred Source by clicking here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Justin Herbert and the\u00a0Los Angeles Chargers\u00a0are headed to the NFL playoffs despite a 20-16 loss to the\u00a0Houston Texans…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":652490,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2056],"tags":[11305,258,7,221,253,2368,392,125,1159,393,1014,262,6,84,94768,394,222],"class_list":["post-652489","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-houston-texans","tag-denico-autry","tag-denver-broncos","tag-football","tag-houston","tag-houston-texans","tag-houstontexans","tag-indianapolis-colts","tag-jacksonville-jaguars","tag-justin-herbert","tag-las-vegas-raiders","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-chargers","tag-nfl","tag-nfl-playoffs","tag-paolo-songco","tag-tennessee-titans","tag-texans"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115835193991111330","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/652489","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=652489"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/652489\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/652490"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=652489"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=652489"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=652489"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}