Kerby Joseph knows the narrative that he's a dirty player. He's just tired of hearing it.
"To be honest, I don’t really care about nobody’s opinion, for real," Joseph said on the NFL Spotlight podcast. "I’ma tackle how I tackle. I’ma get 'em down how I get ‘em down. Because the moment I hesitate, the moment I second-guess myself, that’s when I miss out on a play, and that’s when I get run over, that’s when I get hurt. This is football. When you sign up to play this game, you signed up for injuries. Injuries happen."
Joseph does not have a track record of dirty play, by the letter of the NFL rulebook. He was flagged once this season, for sticking up for his teammate Terrion Arnold during a skirmish after the whistle in the Lions' win over the 49ers.
He's criticized most heavily for a pair of low but legal hits last season on T.J. Hockenson of the Vikings and Tyler Higbee of the Rams that left both tight ends with torn ACL's but for which Joseph was neither flagged nor fined.
The perception of the Lions' All-Pro safety seems to be colored by Matthew Stafford's reaction to the hit on Higbee. Stafford, who was mic'd up for the game, got right in Joseph's face and could be heard saying, "You’re dirty as f**k. It’s been on tape, I’ve seen it."
"I really feel like I got that narrative because ol' boy gonna come and talk crazy because he mic’d up and stuff like that," said Joseph, who made his feelings for Stafford rather clear on Instagram earlier this month. "I really feel like, man, that ain’t nothin', bro. Because, first off, if you seen it all on film, why you threw the ball across the middle? You know I own that part of the field. So don’t come cross the middle. You don’t want to get hurt, don’t catch the ball."
Joseph added Tuesday on X that his job is to "play defense" and that "if I wanted to protect people I would’ve became a security guard."
Joseph was also called out this season by Packers tight end Tucker Kraft, who said before Detroit's second win over Green Bay that he was hoping for "a chance to get my hands on him" because he's "taken some of my brothers out of the game." Kraft said he takes issue "with some of the places (Joseph) likes to lay contact," but was seen later in the season going low on a tackle himself.
"It’s the same people that’s hating on my tackles that be the hypocrites," said Joseph. "I done seen people that’s talking about my tackles go low on D-ends and other stuff like that. Even when I get the ball in my hands, you look at my last interception, bro, I done got tackled low. Like, that’s part of the game, tackling.
"I feel like the only dirty tackle -- and it’s not really a dirty tackle -- but the tackle that the league banned is the hip-drop tackle. And I understand that. It’s whatever, I feel like a tackle’s a tackle, but I haven’t gotten in trouble for no hip-drop tackle or nothing like that. I really feel like, man, the people that’s complaining about dirty hits, they just soft, bro. They don’t know football."