What was supposed to be a healthy on-field clash between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Detroit Lions quickly turned into an off-field conflict. Although the Chiefs secured a 30-17, easy, the drama off the field became headlines.

During the post-game interaction, it appeared as the Lions’ safety Branch slapped the Chiefs’ wide receiver JuJu on his helmet.

The NFL gave him one game suspension for striking JuJu Smith-Schuster. However, as reported by Adam Schefter, “Lions safety Brian Branch’s one-game suspension was upheld on appeal.”

The hearing officer Jordy Nelson, who is appointed by the NFL and NFLPA, is the one who decided to uphold the Branch’s appeal of one-game suspension.

The Lions have their next game with the Tampa Bay in a week, so Branch will serve his suspension in this game, by staying out of it.

Branch was served with a notice by Jon Runyan, who is the NFL VP of football. As per Pelissero, the notice said, ” Your aggressive, non football act was entirely unwarranted, posed a serious risk of injury, and clearly violated the standards of conduct and sportsmanship expected of NFL players. Your conduct reflect poorly on the NFL and has no place in our game.”

So far in this season, Branch has been fined three times. First and foremost fine for the season came in Week 1 itself, he received two fines, one for unsportsmanlike conduct and another one for unnecessary roughness, in that particular game against the Packers, each of $11,593. The third fine for him came, when the Lions where in action against the Ravens. He was fined $11,598 due to a low block. Brian has that rough image in the NFL. In just three years of his NFL career, he has been fined 13 times, out of which seven came last year.

However, the NFL seems firm on their decision, the Lions’ safety has owned up his mistake.

Brian Branch acknowledges his fault

After the whole post-game fiasco, the Lions’ safety came out apologizing for his actions.

While addressing the media, Branch said, “I did a little childish thing, but I’m tired of people doing stuff in between the play and the refs don’t catch it. They be trying to bully me out there and I don’t – I shouldn’t have did it. It was childish.”

Even in the apology, Branch made sure to address his action was a reaction to what Smith-Schuster did during the play.

He continued, “I got blocked in the back illegally. It was in front of the ref, the ref didn’t do anything. Stuff like that. I could’ve gotten hurt off that. But I still shouldn’t have done that.”

However, he made sure that while addressing his point of view, he’s not justifying his actions a bit.”There was a lot of stuff, but I should have showed it between the whistles, not after the game,” Branch said. “I apologize for that.

On the other hand, JuJu looked very calm while talking to the media, I know he’s a better player than that, a better person,” Smith-Schuster said of Branch. “He’ll learn from his mistakes.” The incident led to Smith having a bleeding nose.

Smith gave an indirect response to what Branch said, while expressing his take. The 28-year-old speculated that the reaction might have come from what happened on the field. He explained that it was his job to block Branch on the field.