Lions’ Brian Branch Explains Why He Started ‘Sunday Night Football’ Fight

Detroit Lions safety Brian Branch explained why he went after Kansas City Chiefs wide receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster on Sunday Night Football, which caused a massive tussle between the two teams.

Branch, 23, struck Smith-Schuster, 28, across the facemask after the Chiefs’ 30-17 victory over the Lions at Arrowhead Stadium on Sunday, October 12. Smith-Schuster fell to the ground and the action set off a chaotic fight involving both teams and members of their respective staffs near midfield. 

After making his way back to the locker room, Branch explained he thought Smith-Schuster blocked him in the back near the end of the game, which was undetected by the officials. 

“I could’ve got hurt off of that play,” Branch told reporters. “I still shouldn’t have done that.”

Branch added, “It was a childish thing, but I’m tired of people doing stuff in between the play and refs don’t catch it. They be trying to bully me out there. I should have never did it. It was childish.”

Smith-Schuster pushed back on Branch’s interpretation of events after the game, telling reporters he was “just blocking him.”

“I’m just doing my job,” Smith-Schuster added. “I play between the whistles.”

Detroit Lions head coach Dan Campbell, who found himself in the middle of the mess and in a tense exchange with Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes, addressed the incident after the game. 

“I love Brian Branch,” Campbell, 49, said. “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 Smith-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.”

Veteran Lions defensive end D.J. Reader said he planned on talking to Branch about his behavior in the coming days.

“We’ll have that conversation,” Reader, 31, told reporters after the game. “It’s hard to have that conversation right now because everybody’s trying to have the conversation. I’m sure I’ll get a chance to talk to him, but it’s tough because he’s got that stinger for a reason as a player and you don’t ever want to take that away, but you also want him to be smart. Not only for us, but also for himself. To protect his money, to protect him.”

Mahomes, 30, echoed Smith-Schuster’s sentiment during his postgame interview with NBC sideline reporter Melissa Stark. 

“I mean, we play the game in between the whistles,” Mahomes said. “They can do all the extracurricular stuff they want to do. But we play the game in between the whistles.”

Mahomes later told reporters during his postgame press conference, “That’s a physical team, and they have a mentality that they come in to play with, and we’re going to match that mentality. We’re not afraid to go up against anybody. That’s the mentality Coach Reid brings every single day, and we’re going to match the intensity of whoever steps on that field.”