NFL Reports Today Lions’ Dan Campbell on Brian Branch’s postgame strike of Juju Smith-Schuster: ‘What he did is inexcusable’
Detroit Lions safety Brian Branch was at the center of a horrific incident following his team’s loss to the Kansas City Chiefs on Sunday night.
After Branch took his final kneeldown of the game, he threw a powerful punch at Chiefs wide receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster. Smith-Schuster fell to the ground from the blow and then ran after Branch, who grabbed the receiver’s facemask and threw him to the ground, sparking a scuffle between players from both teams.
Lions head coach Dan Campbell, unprompted, reprimanded Branch for his actions after the game.
“I’ll start with this,” Campbell said. “I love Brian Branch, but what he did is inexcusable and it won’t be accepted here. It’s not what we do, it’s not who we are. I apologize to Coach [Andy] Reid, the Chiefs, and Schuster. It’s not okay. We don’t do that here, and it won’t be okay. He knows that, our team knows that. We don’t do that.”
The 23-year-old Branch apologized for the incident while speaking to reporters in the locker room, but also defended himself.
“I acted really childish,” Branch said, via Colton Pouncey of The Athletic. “I’m tired of people doing things like that in the middle of the game and the referees can’t catch them. They’re trying to bully me out there. I shouldn’t have done that, it was childish.”
Branch further said that the reason for his altercation with Smith-Schuster was the receiver hitting him on the back on a play late in the game.
“I was blocked from behind illegally. And it happened in front of the referee, and the referee didn’t do anything. And stuff like that. It could have hurt me, but I still shouldn’t have done it,” Branch said.