Brian Branch will not be participating in this week’s upcoming matchup against the Buccaneers.

The Detroit Lions’ strong safety Brian Branch has been suspended for a single game without any pay immediately following this past Sunday’s game against the Kansas City Chiefs. The Lions’ one time pro bowler strong safety began a fight between both teams directly after the game ended after punching Kansas City Chiefs wide receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster in the face.

Brian Branch who is set to miss this week’s upcoming matchup against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Monday night will be expected to compensate around $76,624 for the incident and miss out on a game. Branch made a statement directly following the suspension, according to the NFL media.

Branch provided an explanation regarding his inexcusable actions postgame and the constant feelings of frustration in which expressed with Smith-Schuster during Sunday night’s game.

Branch stated the following; ”I did a real childish thing,” I’m tired of people doing stuff in between plays and refs don’t catch it. They be trying to bully me out there. I shouldn’t have did that, it was childish.”

Detroit Lion’s head coach Dan Campbell stated that Branch’s actions were simply ”inexcusable” all throughout the postgame press conference. Campbell also openly apologized to Kansas City Chiefs’ head coach Andy Reid, who stated during his postgame press conference that Brian Branch had done some ”pretty good damage” to Smith-Schuster’s nose immediately after the brawl began, without getting into specific detail.

”You guys saw it,” Reid stated. ”The guy came up and hit JuJu for what looked like no reason.”

Kansas City Chiefs’ quarterback Patrick Mahomes, who was seen attempting to shake hands with Brian Branch right before the situation took place, didn’t refrain from telling his side of the story when asked about what exactly occurred once the game ended.

”We play the game in between the whistles,” Mahomes stated to NBC sports news. ”They can do all of the extra curricular stuff in between the whistles. I thought we played a great game today. And we’ll keep this momentum moving forward.”

With Branch now in his third season, this was the fourteenth time that Brian Branch has been fined by the league, and there fourth time in which he has been fined just this season. Branch’s initial fined cost him roughly $130,000 in professional salary.

Assuming that Branch’s suspension remains in place, he will be benched for the lions’ playoff rematch against Tampa Bay. Despite having his absence as a particularly large issue for the team who have to somehow slow down the Buccaneers offense without him, the lions should be able to manage even with having such a hole in their secondary going into week 7. Especially having to stop quarterback Baker Mayfield who is currently a early MVP frontrunner who has a exceptional completion percentage, 12 touchdowns, and only a single interception making it a rather daunting task for the lions going forward.