The Kansas City Chiefs managed to take down a Detroit Lions team that came into their Sunday Night Week 6 duel with plenty of momentum, but Brian Branch and his defense eventually fell flat on the field before humiliating themselves off the field.
Frustrated with what he believes to be poor refereeing missing multiple instances of the Chiefs going out of their way to knock him around, Branch started a postgame brawl that ended with JuJu Smith-Schuster getting decked in the face and needing some cloth up his nose in the immediate aftermath.
Fans who were hoping for the NFL to come down with a very punitive sentence will be relieved to hear that Branch has been suspended one game without pay by the league for his actions after the game. Even with how apologetic everyone was when things simmered down, that doesn’t change the fact that he was clearly in the wrong here.
Lions DB Brian Branch suspended one game after Chiefs punch
To give Branch some credit, he did acknowledge that he was in the wrong for reacting the way he did in the locker room. Lions head coach Dan Campbell called the action “unacceptable” and said that playing like that is not what the Lions try to represent.
Branch, and the Lions secondary as a whole, did noy have a game to write home about against Mahomes and this receiver room in their final performance before the return of Rashee Rice. With Mahomes accounting for four touchdowns, three of which came through the air, it became clear that this secondary was ill-prepared for Kansas City.
Branch is appealing his suspension, but a denial of said appeal would lead to him missing a Monday Night Football duel against the red-hot Baker Mayfield and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. This Bucs passing game is not the best one to be down a possible All-Pro defensive back.
Branch has been swiftly dealt with after some childish attempts to get back at Smith-Schuster. Not only did Kansas City pick up the much-needed home win, but they did so while indirectly leading to one of Detroit’s key players sabotaging his availability for Week 7.
