Things got extremely heated in the final seconds of the Kansas City Chiefs’ win over the Detroit Lions on Sunday night.
As the two teams were taking the field to shake hands as the final seconds were ticking off the clock at Arrowhead Stadium, Lions safety Brian Branch reached out and hit Kansas City Chiefs wide receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster in his facemask after blowing past Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes — who looked like he was trying to shake his hand, though Branch ignored him.
That sent Smith-Schuster down to the ground, though he jumped back up and went after Branch with a few others as the scuffle escalated. The whole thing took officials and coaches quite some time to sort out.
Things eventually calmed down and both teams were able to leave the field successfully without further issue. The scuffle is sure to lead to fines from the league, at a minimum, in the coming days.
“We play the game in between the whistles,” Mahomes said on NBC when asked about the incident. “They can do all the extracurricular stuff they want to do, but we play the game in between the whistles.”
Lions head coach Dan Campbell called out Branch after the game, too.
“I love Brian Branch, but what he did was inexcusable,” Lions head coach Dan Campbell said, via the Detroit News’ Nolan Bianchi. “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 … That’s not OK.”
The outburst came after the Chiefs surged ahead in the second half to beat the Lions 30-17 on Sunday night. They took a three point lead into the locker room at halftime, and then Hollywood Brown scored his first of two second-half touchdowns on their first drive of the third quarter to take all momentum away from the Lions.
Mahomes went 22-of-30 for 257 yards with three touchdowns in the win for the Chiefs, who now sit at 3-3 on the year. Isaiah Pacheco had 51 yards on 12 carries, and Travis Kelce had 78 yards on six catches. Smith-Schuster had 57 yards on three catches, too.
Jared Goff went 23-of-29 for 203 yards with two touchdowns for the Lions, who had won four straight entering Sunday’s contest. Jahmyr Gibbs had 65 yards on 17 carries, and Jameson Williams had 66 yards and a score on six catches. Branch, now in his third season in the league, had seven total tackles.
