After an ugly incident at the end of the Detroit Lions' Week 6 loss to the Kansas City Chiefs, safety Brian Branch was easily headed for further discipline from the league with 13 previous fines on his resume.
On Monday the league did a step better, suspending Branch one game for his role in starting a fight with Chiefs wide receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster. Branch will appeal, with Dave Birkett of the Detroit Free Press reporting the league will hear the appeal quickly (perhaps it has been heard by the time you're reading this).
As expected, Lions head coach Dan Campbell confirmed the team is operating as if Branch will not be available for Week 7 against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
As mentioned, Branch has been fined 13 times in his career. A number of them have been related to illegal hits or illegal use of his helmet, with a couple taunting calls and a memorable obscene gesture to the crowd at Lambeau Field after he was ejected for a hit to a defenseless receiver last season.
Branch is a terrific player, and by all accounts he's a good person who's humble and respectful when he deals with the media. There is certainly leeway to make mistakes and have bad moments without taking those good things away. But there's a pattern of things here that look like poor judgement, and Branch has earned attention from the league office anytime something involves him.
Radio hosts have nuanced discussion about Brian Branch
On Tuesday's episode of 97.1 The Ticket's "Costa and Jansen with Heather", co-host Jim Costa wondered if Branch's behavior is becoming a problem.
"Is there a Brian Branch problem here?", Costa said. "Are fans turning on him?...Is there a pause on a contract extension?
"I'd extend the guy, even with the fines, even with the suspensions. I don't like that, but at the same time he's such a valuable piece to this defense. It has not even entered my mind that I would pause any contract talks, or that it would swing the other way where I wouldn't wanna extend him."
Co-host Jon Jansen then offered his thoughts about the situation with Branch.
"It's really gonna come down to what is it that they can do internally to curb the decisions that he's making like this....Like the Green Bay one, the double-bird, that is an impulsive decision. But the reason he was ejected was the hit, you could coach some things...I didn't agree with the ejection...I'm not really concerned with moments like that."
Jansen added how illegal hits happen without malicious intent from the player, and an aggressive player like Branch will have plays like that happen. His aggressive nature can also impact the play positively for the Lions' defense, when an opposing receiver knows he might get leveled.
But Jansen went back to his initial point as a point of concern.
"It's what happens (after). The impulsive decisions. The double bird. It's the hitting JuJu Smith-Schuster. It's not being able to control those emotions...What happens if it's a playoff game? Stakes are high. Emotions are high."
Jansen avoided the term "intervention" when it comes to Branch, choosing instead to say (rightly) that there needs to be a "course correction" in how he reacts to situations.
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Costa noted some mixed sentiment coming to the show from Lions fans about Branch, from "give me 53 of him" to "he's becoming expendable."
It's easy to go to an extreme negative end when talking about Branch after the incident with Smith-Schuster. Props to Costa and Jansen for having a more nuanced conversation, and landing on the simple point that something has to change with the decisions Branch is making. As Jansen said, opposing players will use his lack of control against him until he fixes it.
The extent to which the team can do something about Branch drawing so many fines, and now a suspension that won't be his first if he doesn't correct some things, is a separate conversation Jansen sort of hinted at.
If anything moves the Lions off of giving Branch the kind of second contract his level of play has earned, it stands to be his inability to avoid more moments that draw ire from the league office and threaten to take him off the field. But we are not close to seriously having that conversation yet, if it ever gets to that point.