Detroit Lions safety Brian Branch was at the center of an ugly incident following the conclusion of his team’s loss to the Kansas City Chiefs on Sunday night.
Branch, following the game’s final kneel-down, struck Chiefs wide receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster with an open-handed blow. Smith-Schuster was sent to the ground by the strike and then ran after Branch, who grabbed the receiver’s facemask and threw him to the ground, igniting a pull-apart skirmish with members from both teams.
Lions head coach Dan Campbell, unprompted, led off his postgame availability by admonishing Branch for his actions.
“Let me start with this,” Campbell said. “I love Brian Branch, but what he did is inexcusable and it’s not going to be accepted here. 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, and it’s not gonna be OK. He knows it, our team knows it. That’s not what we do.”
Branch, 23, apologized for the incident while speaking to reporters in the locker room, but also defended himself in the process.
“I did a real childish thing,” Branch said, via The Athletic’s Colton Pouncy. “I’m tired of people doing stuff in between plays and refs don’t catch it. They be trying to bully me out there. I shouldn’t have did it, it was childish.”
Branch went on to say that the reason for his altercation with Smith-Schuster was the receiver hitting him in the back on a play late in the game.
“I got blocked in the back illegally,” Branch said. “And it was in front of the ref and the ref didn’t do anything. And just stuff like that. I coulda got hurt off a that, but I still should not have done that.”
The final official play of Sunday night’s game was a Patrick Mahomes kneel-down. After the quarterback took a knee, Branch, who was lined up outside the right edge of the Chiefs victory formation, looked to be headed straight toward Smith-Schuster. He ignored Isiah Pacheco and a handshake attempt from Mahomes. Smith-Schuster, who was lined up behind Mahomes as the safety valve, pumped his arms up in the air. Smith-Schuster then offered his hand to Branch and was met with an open-handed strike.
Smith-Schuster was sent reeling and to the turf. After he got to his feet, he ran after Branch, who was being held back by Pacheco. Branch then grabbed a charging Smith-Schuster by the facemask and slung him to the ground and followed him there, a mass of players surrounding the fracas.
Not long after, Mahomes was interviewed on the field by NBC’s Melissa Stark.
“I mean, we play the game in between the whistles,” the Chiefs quarterback said. “They can do all the extracurricular stuff they want to do, but we play in between the whistles.”
Branch, a 2023 NFL Draft second-round choice out of Alabama, is in his third NFL season. He had seven tackles on Sunday and has tallied 33 through six games this season.
Branch has a history with controversial play, having drawn seven fines last season and three already this season. In total for 2025, Branch has incurred $34,784 in fines so far for an unsportsmanlike conduct infraction (Week 1 versus the Green Bay Packers) and two unnecessary roughness violations (taunting also versus the Packers; Week 3 versus the Baltimore Ravens for a low block).
It's likely Branch will draw at least another fine and potentially a suspension for his postgame actions.
Said Branch: “There was a lot of stuff, but I should’ve shown it between the whistle, not after the game and I apologize for that.”