Updated: Oct. 13, 2025, 12:21 a.m.
Published: Oct. 12, 2025, 11:30 p.m.
APTOPIX Lions Chiefs Football
Detroit Lions defensive back Brian Branch (32) fights with Kansas City Chiefs wide receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster (9) while be held back by Chiefs’ James Winchester, left, and Isiah Pacheco (10) following an NFL football game Sunday, Oct. 12, 2025, in Kansas City, Mo. (AP Photo/Ed Zurga)AP
By
Chris Mason | [email protected]
As pyrotechnics went off following a Chiefs win at Arrowhead Stadium, there were some postgame fireworks on the field as well.
Following the final kneel down, Patrick Mahomes went to shake the hand of Lions safety Brian Branch, who declined the quarterback’s invitation. Then JuJu Smith-Schuster said something to Branch, extending his own hand. The safety smacked Smith-Schuster in the face and sent him down to the turf.
Smith-Schuster got up and sprinted after Branch, hitting him as the Lions player was being restrained by Chiefs running back Isiah Pacheco. Branch then tossed Smith-Schuster to the ground again by his facemask, ripping his helmet off, and players from both teams swarmed.
“I love Brian Branch, but what he did is inexcusable and it’s not going to be accepted here,” Lions coach Dan Campbell said. “It’s not what we do. It’s not what we’re about. I apologized to (Chiefs coach Andy) Reid and the Chiefs and (Smith-Schuster). That’s not OK. That’s not what we do here. It’s not going to be OK. He knows it. Our team knows it. So that’s not what we do.”
In the Chiefs’ 30-17 victory on Sunday night, Smith-Schuster caught three passes for 57 yards. One of Bill Belichick’s final big free agent signings in Foxborough, the veteran receiver spent a disappointing 2023 season in New England and was cut during training camp the following summer. He’s since landed in Kansas City and made himself at home there.
Lions Put up More of a Fight After The Game Then They Did During it!
An altercation began after the game. A Lions player disregarded Mahomes end of game greeting. Some of the Chiefs players did not take that well.
That Lions roar would have benefitted them more in the… pic.twitter.com/j4RJE4Q1Kk
— CEO Branding Expert (@Ceo_Branding) October 13, 2025
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Chris Mason is an award-winning sports enterprise reporter with years of background on both the Patriots and Red Sox beats. He enjoys (good) live music, Clint Eastwood westerns, “Infinite Jest,” and spending…
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