Is Brian Branch On The NFL's 'Problematic' List?

WXYT-FM / 97.1 The Ticket

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00:00Hmm, okay, so here's a deal with this. All right, I really don't believe in conspiracies

00:08And this one and keep in mind the NFL doesn't have a targeting rule

00:12They have a lower the helmet rule and they don't review the plays at the stadium like they do in college, but New York can

00:20Call in Dean Blandino said the league thought the branch had the option to avoid that hit

00:25But

00:27There's a few things here that make me wonder one is

00:31This went under reported and barely even talked about but we brought it up because we stumbled upon it with the NFL's

00:38Accountability page. There's this page that during the week they hand out a whole bunch of fines

00:44that

00:45sometimes do and don't get reported and

00:48the five in week three

00:51Brian branch got fined twice and

00:56What was week three was that Seattle? I think it was Seattle and

01:00We've stumbled upon it the week after that game and I said to you, huh?

01:04These were over $10,000 fines, which was the high Cardinals Cardinals as a Cardinals. Okay was after the Cardinals game Brian branch got a

01:13Striking

01:15violation this is for hitting kicking or

01:18Striking someone of over $10,000 and he got another one for a a hit to the head and

01:26In the wake of that game you and I were like, huh? That's weird

01:28I don't remember anything and I'm not even sure who was flagged but the league had found some stuff

01:34that they didn't like about Brian branch and

01:38Then last week Xavier McKinney made the comment that the Lions are quote trying to embarrass people

01:45And as we talked about it, there was well they tried to about everyone's like they tried to embarrass Dallas

01:50They tried to embarrass Dallas and I made the comment. I don't think they were trying to embarrass Dallas

01:56in fact

01:57If they were quote-unquote trying to embarrass somebody I would argue that they were trying to embarrass the officials

02:04with all of the offensive linemen reporting and

02:07Throwing to them and all that stuff when you take us back and you go all the way back

02:13To that

02:15game against Dallas last year where the guy where Dan skipper reported and they called a didn't report or

02:22Excuse me Decker and anyway

02:25and I am starting to wonder if

02:29the Lions are

02:32Starting to develop a bit of an enemy in the league office for that

02:37Because as you mentioned last segment

02:41Yeah, the Jordan Poyer hit of the Dolphins looked very similar he did not get ejected

02:48The Chris Olave getting knocked out by Xavier Woods of the Panthers did not lead to an ejection

02:55this did and

02:57well, I

02:59Feel like I'm being a little bit hypocritical because I say I'm not a conspiracy theorist

03:03This one has me raising my eyebrow a little bit a little bit

03:07that the Lions have perhaps

03:11Kind of low-key made a bit of an enemy in the league office

03:15so Gator, you know

03:17I'm sure there's some people out there that buy into this a lot of this conspiracy stuff quicker than I do and I'm not mad

03:22at you

03:24It's just I tip I don't I usually don't buy into those things, but this one's interesting the way this has got went down

03:32It is and when Dan Campbell said that what he had to say like, okay

03:36You're not just gonna come out and say that unless he's got something behind it, right?

03:41Yeah, so being the primetime game all eyes are on you and there's only what two of the three two or three other games going

03:48on at that time and

03:50I don't know if they're paying extra close attention to it

03:53But I don't think it helped Brian branches cause that there were injuries in the you know

03:57One o'clock games on very questionable hits

04:00so in this one in the way that it was relayed by was it Blandin or

04:06Pereira, whoever it was the way it was relayed. I

04:10Agree with it. I agree with what they said. I don't I wouldn't have ejected the player

04:15but if the reasoning for rejecting was well because he had a chance not to hit the receiver and he did I

04:22Agree, he had a chance not to hit him and he did so if there's a penalty associated with that you got a

04:27You got to deal with it. What I didn't like is it end up being 30 yards and penalties

04:33against the Lions

04:35Fortunately, it didn't cost them it cost him Brian branch for the rest of the game

04:39Which was a massive blow to the team and yet they overcame it

04:43Yeah, I mean, I think we can all agree at the least there was a penalty on branch, right?

04:47Yes, I think that the debatable part is the second part when New York calls and says that you know

04:51He should be ejected. I agree with you Gator. I think we're in the minority here in Detroit

04:56By letter the law the way did Blandino explained the rule

04:59He probably should be he was ejected for right for you know, the right reason now you can argue

05:05That reason but it sounded like like I said by letter to the law

05:09He definitely had time to pull up

05:11That's I was actually more upset about the just the original penalty because Brian branch is such a good player

05:15He's so instinctive. He knows he's got great ball skills

05:18I thought he actually had a chance to even try to intercept it because that's how far the ball was not even by the receiver

05:23Anymore when he hit him, so it was a clear penalty and I was shocked at first when they said he was ejected

05:28I was like, whoa, I didn't expect that but then when you go back and look

05:32Branch took two full steps and the ball hit the ground when he hit the receiver

05:36You gotta put yourself if you're in a Green Bay if you're a Green Bay fan

05:39You're like and someone did it to Jameson Williams or a st. Brown

05:42I think you'd be thinking the other way you'd be thinking the ejection to I guess but

05:47Putting it in the context of hits. We saw in the league

05:50Yesterday, remember the Devonta Smith Devontae Smith hit earlier in the year in Philly like there had been some

05:56Brutal hits that didn't result in ejections now after the game

06:00They do something with calls like this where they have what they call pool reporter one reporter goes and asks all the questions and

06:07in this case talking with NFL senior vice president of officiating Perry fuel and

06:12It was Rob Damowski who is a ESPN reporter that covers the Packers

06:17Here's the exchange question on the penalty on Brian branches that are automatic ejection fuel not automatic

06:25We reviewed all the angles and we clearly felt that he had time and space to make a different choice as

06:30The act was a flagrant foul and he clearly had the opportunity to avoid the head and neck area

06:36Question. So is that something that's decided on the field or in concert with you in New York fuel?

06:41answer in concert we had a flag on the field and so we had a

06:47Consultation with the crew on the field as well as us here in New York

06:51Question one last thing he made what looked like a double middle finger gesture, but it was after the ejection

06:58There was no additional discipline on the field for that at that point

07:02Fuel answer. No, there was not not by our on-field officials. No question

07:07Okay, but that could be subject to something later on fuel that could be through compliance. Yes, he's gonna get fine

07:15but I

07:17Don't know man, I I just I feel like there's an inconsistency and I have it in the back of my mind

07:23I do not want the Lions making unnecessary enemies. I

07:29Understand that and I and I agree there. I think that

07:33You know, the Dallas game is drinking bring that up with all the trick plays

07:37They ran to the offensive lineman and was that a concerted effort was that an FU to the league? Yeah, I mean it's

07:44And

07:45Could you have done that in any other game you could have which did it against Dallas?

07:50Because of what happened last year in Dallas on that particular play

07:54So you're you're further hammering home the point and not only is an FU to the league, but it's the same thing to Dallas. Yeah

08:01and

08:03Obviously the Lions just punished the Cowboys all game long that game meant something to this team and and I don't want to take away

08:11That edge that they have they went into that Cowboys game

08:14They wanted to pummel Dallas and they did and they went into this game with big chip on their shoulder

08:20No doubt that it was drummed into their heads by the head coach. Hey people are questioning your toughness

08:25They say that you can't play outside. They can't say you can't play in the elements. You know, this is this is Lambeau field

08:31This is what this field is built on people know about it because the ice bowl from 70 years ago

08:35You know everybody's talking about it

08:36now you got a chance out there to go in and make a difference here and

08:40They do they go out there and they went they didn't drop passes. They didn't slip in the mud

08:46They paid attention to their shoes and what the right cleats were and all that and they come away with a with a pretty

08:52Sound thumping of the Packers now do did it matter in yesterday's game and the outcome? No, it didn't they overcame it

08:58I'm just a little I don't want to be talking about this moving forward. I don't want there to be

09:04Right now we're in this we've got the what some people call rich people problems

09:08we had a really really good football team that has a

09:11Legitimate chance to win the Super Bowl and we don't want it to come under jeopardy into any kind of jeopardy

09:17Unnecessarily like injuries are gonna happen. We you know, the Lions have lost Aiden Hutchinson

09:22And and they'll probably lose some other players in the coming weeks

09:25It's almost a certainty. You're gonna lose players

09:28but what we don't want is to lose players for avoidable reasons like suspensions that they've had already and

09:35Maybe even more suspensions for stuff anything else. I don't put it in in jeopardy. I sure hope he doesn't get suspended

09:42I sure hope that it's done like oh the ejection they did that it wasn't as egregious as the hits in the one o'clock games

09:49So maybe they got something going for him there

09:51But the issue that we're gonna have moving forward is if it happens again

09:54If it happens again, this Brian branch now have a target on his back. It's Kirby Joseph

09:59Kirby Joseph and remembered TJ Hawkinson just came back yesterday going back to a hit last year

10:04Who's the other tight end Kang Tyler Higbee? Thank you. And so now you're wearing

10:10Green Bay sucks shirts, which I find funny and it's clearly a motivating factor

10:15But I just don't want any of this stuff to get in the way the job of winning the Super Bowl

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