Detroit Lions’ Brian Branch Suspended After Punching JuJu Smith-Schuster

Brian Branch, a Detroit Lions safety, has been suspended one game without pay for conduct that the NFL determined violated league standards in Sunday night’s loss to the Kansas City Chiefs. The discipline follows Branch’s throwing a punch at Chiefs receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster during an altercation that sparked a brawl in which Smith-Schuster was left bloodied after Branch’s punch.

NFL Says Behavior Was “Unacceptable”

In a letter to Branch, NFL vice president of football operations Jon Runyan wrote that Branch’s “aggressive, non-football act” presented a great risk of injury and “constituted a clear violation of the standards of conduct and sportsmanship expected of NFL players.” The league emphasized that Branch’s actions “had a negative impact on the NFL, and have no place in our game.”

The Lions, currently 4-2, will play the Tampa Bay Bucaneers (5-1) without Branch, a further blow to a team already beset with injuries to its defensive backs. He will be eligible to rejoin the active roster on Oct. 21 during the bye week preceding the Lions’ Nov. 2 meeting with division rival Minnesota.

Brawl Breaks Out After Chiefs Win

After the Chiefs beat Detroit 30-17, Patrick Mahomes extended a hand to Branch, who ignored it. Then JuJu Smith-Schuster confronted Branch, and after a few words were exchanged, Branch knocked Smith-Schuster to the ground with a punch.

The Chiefs receiver bounced right back up, and attempted a retaliatory punch, but Kansas City running back Isiah Pacheco intervened. The melee amplified when Branch ripped the helmet off Smith-Schuster’s head before team mates from both sides came to separate them.

“I did a childish thing. I’ll admit that. But I’m tired of all the stuff that goes on in between plays, and the officials don’t see it,” Branch said afterward. “They be trying to bully me out there. It was a childish act. I shouldn’t have done it.”

Branch had already been fined in Sept. $23,186 for two fouls — facemask and a penalty for unsportsmanlike conduct against Green Bay.

Lions Coach Chastises Player

The outburst was condemned as unacceptable by head coach Dan Campbell. “I love Brian Branch,” Campbell said, “but what he did is inexcusable. It’s not what we do, it’s not who we are. I apologized to coach Andy Reid, the Chiefs, and to Smith-Schuster. He knows that it’s wrong. Our team knows that it’s wrong.”

Branch, picked out of Alabama in the second round of the 2023 NFL Draft, has been one of the Lions’ outstanding players. Last year, he was selected to the Pro Bowl after finishing fifth in the voting for the Associated Press Defensive Rookie of the Year.

The imposition of suspension increases the Lions’ growing list of disciplinary problems as they strive to hold on to their rapid start for supremacy in the NFC.