Brian Branch will pay a steep price for smacking JuJu Smith-Schuster after the Lions' loss to the Chiefs last week. Maybe players around the NFL will cover his fine.
While Branch will miss next Monday's game against the Buccaneers and forfeit a game check for what the NFL called an "entirely unwarranted" shot at Smith-Schuster that "has no place in our game," it sounds like Branch's peers believe the Chiefs wide receiver deserved it.
"First of all, JuJu needed his ass whooped," Colts Pro Bowl linebacker Zaire Franklin said this week on the Club 520 Podcast. "Let's just go there, No. 1. Him, specifically, really needs his ass whooped. Bro, he’s been needing his ass whooped for a minute. Brian Branch doing the work of the Lord, bro, whooped that man ass."
Franklin has played against Smith-Schuster four times in the NFL, most recently in 2023 when the receiver was with the Patriots. They also clashed in 2022 when Smith-Schuster was in his first stint with the Chiefs and twice when he played for the Steelers.
"He's an a**hole, bro," said Franklin. "And this is my thing. I’m gonna talk greasy to you, we gonna go right up and when we get that one-on-one, I ain’t gonna duck the smoke. So whether I win or lose, it is what it is. He the type that's gonna do all the little weird, sneaky stuff, push you behind the back, go run and tell the ref ... then try to be cool with you after."
Branch smacked Smith-Schuster in the face mask as players from both sides convened on the field after the Lions' 30-17 loss to the Chiefs, retaliating for a block in the back from Smith-Schuster in the fourth quarter that drove Branch into the turf and went uncalled by the refs. The shot set off a brief skirmish between the two teams and left Smith-Schuster with a bloody nose.
Franklin got a kick out of the scene, watching from home. And it sounds like he wasn't the only one.
"Y'all see the picture, though?" he said with a laugh. "Bro, you can’t be crying with your nose bloody. Like, you got kids, bro. ... That’s how I think, like, bro, my son in the stands, I can’t let you put your hands on me. My girl watching, she might like you now after this."