Things got extremely heated in the final seconds of the Kansas City Chiefs win over the Detroit Lions on Sunday night.
As the two teams took the field at Arrowhead Stadium to shake hands with the final seconds ticking off the clock, Lions safety Brian Branch reached out and hit Kansas City Chiefs wide receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster in his facemask after blowing past Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes who looked like he was trying to shake his hand, though Branch ignored him.
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That sent Smith-Schuster down to the ground, though he jumped back up and went after Branch with a few others as the scuffle escalated. The whole thing took officials and coaches quite some time to sort out.
Things eventually calmed down and both teams were able to leave the field without further issue. Smith-Schuster was seen walking off the field holding a towel to his face, and Chiefs head coach Andy Reid said that there is “pretty good damage” to his nose.
The scuffle is sure to lead to fines from the league, at a minimum, in the coming days.
Lions head coach Dan Campbell called out Branch after the game, too.
The outburst came after the Chiefs surged ahead in the second half to beat the Lions 30-17 on Sunday night. They took a three-point lead into the locker room at halftime, and then Hollywood Brown scored his first of two second-half touchdowns on their first drive of the third quarter to take all momentum away from the Lions.
Mahomes went 22 of 30 for 257 yards with three touchdowns in the win for the Chiefs, who now sit at 3-3 on the year. Isaiah Pacheco had 51 yards on 12 carries, and Travis Kelce had 78 yards on six catches. Smith-Schuster had 57 yards on three catches, too.
Jared Goff went 23 of 29 for 203 yards with two touchdowns for the Lions, who had won four straight games entering Sunday. Jahmyr Gibbs had 65 yards on 17 carries, and Jameson Williams had 66 yards and a score on six catches. Branch, now in his third season in the league, had seven total tackles.