A Detroit Lions player’s foolishness on national television could end up making the Bucs’ challenge significantly more manageable
The league could drop the hammer on one Detroit player ahead of clash with Tampa Bay.
Sunday was a good day for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, as they finally defeated the San Francisco 49ers 30-19 after years of futility. The Bucs improved to 5-1 with the win, which moved them to the top of the NFC standings through 6 weeks.
While it is a victory Monday for the team, it’s not too early to look ahead to a major showdown next week against the Detroit Lions on Monday Night Football. And, thanks to the mind-bogglingly immature and foolish actions of one of the Lions most notable defenders on Sunday Night Football, the Bucs might end up catching a break against Detroit.
Lions DB Brian Branch could be facing discipline, including a possible suspension, after causing a brawl and punching a player after their loss to Kansas City
After the Chiefs kneeled three times to close out their 30-17 win over the Lions, Patrick Mahomes attempted to shake hands with Branch, but the latter blew by him. Shortly after, Branch and JuJu Smith-Schuster approached each other, and Branch reached out and popped him hard in the head (well, helmet), which fueled both teams running together and tempers flaring. Eventually, the sides separated without any injuries or an all-out brawl between the players, but it’s honestly fortunate it wasn’t worse.
The reason Branch could be facing a suspension is because, as our A to Z Detroit beat writer Mike Payton notes, the Lions defender has been fined a total of 13 times now in his career. The message apparently isn’t getting through. Given that history of fines, the aggressive nature of his actions, and the league’s desire to maintain control and promote player safety, it wouldn’t be a surprise at all for Branch to end up getting a suspension of some type this week.
We’ll see in the days ahead what happens, but if the league realizes their message of fines isn’t getting through to Branch, the Bucs could be facing an already thin Detroit defense on Monday without him.
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