Detroit defensive back Brian Branch thought he had been blocked in the back illegally without the officials calling a penalty during the Lions’ 30-17 loss to the Kansas City Chiefs on Sunday night.
So as soon as the game ended, Branch took matters into his own hands — or, rather, his own hand.
After the final play, Branch approached the player he later said was responsible for the illegal block, Chiefs receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster, and hit him hard on the left side of his face mask with an open hand.
Smith-Schuster fell to a knee but immediately popped up and went after Branch. The two players scuffled briefly, with Smith-Schuster losing his helmet and ending up back on the ground, as other players and coaches tried to intervene.
Talking to reporters after the game, Branch apologized and took responsibility for his actions while also attempting to explain what had set him off.
“I did a little childish thing,” the third-year player said. “But I’m tired of people doing stuff in between the play and refs don’t catch it. Like, they were trying to bully me out there and I don’t think — I shouldn’t have did it. It was childish.”
Asked to elaborate on what had happened during the game, Branch said: “I got blocked in the back illegally, and it was front of the ref. The ref didn’t do anything, and just stuff like that. And I could have got hurt off of that, but I still shouldn’t have done that.”
Branch said later in the interview that he should have taken out his frustrations within the rules of the game “between the whistles, not after the game, and I apologize for that.”
Branch was fined $23,186 earlier this season for face-masking and unsportsmanlike conduct penalties during a game against the Green Bay Packers. He could face another fine and possibly a suspension for his actions Sunday night, an NFL spokesperson told The Times. There is no timetable for a decision to be made on the matter.
The Chiefs offense and Lions defense were on the field for the final play. As soon as the final whistle blew, Branch appeared to walk right past Kansas City quarterback Patrick Mahomes, who had extended his hand for a postgame handshake, to confront Smith-Schuster.
“After the game, I was expecting to shake his hand and say, ‘Good game’ and move away, but he threw a punch,” Smith-Schuster told reporters in the locker room. “At the end of the day, it’s a team sport. We came out here, we did our job, we won, and that’s all that matters.”
Smith-Schuster was asked what might have led up to the incident.
“I mean, just me blocking him,” the ninth-year receiver said. “I mean, I’m just doing my job. I play between the whistles and after the game he just took advantage of what he did.”
Smith-Schuster reportedly received a bloody nose from the hit. There were no signs of blood by the time he gave his postgame interview, but Smith-Schuster confirmed that he had been bleeding.
Detroit coach Dan Campbell — who famously declared during his introductory press conference in 2021 that his team would bite off opponents’ kneecaps — told reporters that Branch’s actions were unacceptable.
“I love Brian Branch, but what he did is inexcusable and it’s not going to be accepted here,” Campbell said. “It’s not what we do. It’s not what we’re about. I apologized to Coach [Andy] Reid and the Chiefs, and Schuster. That’s not OK. That’s not what we do here. It’s not going to be OK. He knows it. Our team knows it. That’s not what we do.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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