US.Brian Branch: Lions’ New Dominating Hero or Ghost of Ndamukong Suh? — Does the NFL See Him That Way?

Let’s go back in time just a little bit, back to when the Detroit Lions had one of the best defensive players in the game in Ndamukong Suh. He was a lot of fun to watch in Detroit, and everyone loved the aggressiveness that he brought to his game. He wasn’t just going to hit you, he was going to HIT you. However, it came with eyes on everything he did, and with heavy roughing the passer and unnecessary roughness fines.

Then that moment happened when, with all of the eyes in the world on him, he went and did something so bad that it changed the way the world saw him. He stomped on Packers guard Evan Dietrich-Smith, and then, no matter what happened, Suh was considered a dirty player, and no matter what he did, that would never change.

It followed Suh and magnified everything he did until an accident like stepping on Aaron Rodgers’ leg became a big deal, with everyone feeling he did it on purpose, and he got fined $70,000 for it. Anyone can go look at that and tell that he didn’t do it on purpose.

Sunday night’s incident was Brian Branch’s version of the stomp

Like Suh, Brian Branch has been fined before. But it was for cool stuff, right? “Hell yeah, he hit that guy really hard and then flipped off the crowd.” People made a t-shirt out of that moment. It was cool. Other stuff could probably be explained away. Like the fine he got for a low block against the Ravens this season. He clearly fell, and a guy tripped over the back of him. Nobody could look at that any other way except the NFL.

But on Sunday night, he branded himself forever. He’s the dirty player now. Human emotion doesn’t count in the entertainment realm. Ask Will Smith. You’re supposed to just suppress everything, and that’s it. Lions fans know why Branch did what he did, but the world doesn’t know, and they don’t even care. To them, he did it because the Lions lost, and that’s it.

While Lions fans will continue to support him, and there will be talk about the Bad Boys Pistons, and people will say stuff like “this is what Detroit sports are. We’re aggressive.” The NFL will zero in on him and scrutinize him way more than ever before. With that comes the officials never giving him a favorable call and calling everything on him.

Branch now needs to be perfect in an imperfect game. He has to do everything legally, to the point where you worry he might have to lay off a receiver a little bit to not get called because he’s the guy with the reputation, and if something looks even slightly aggressive, will it get called? I guess we’ll have to see.

At the end of the day, Branch is not a dirty player, and he’s not a jerk. I mean, when you talk to this man, you hear a soft-spoken guy who says “yes, sir” and “yes ma’am.” He’s very respectful.

Is he an aggressive player? Yes, of course he is. He wants to hit, and that’s what he does. But he’s not a guy who wants to hurt someone and then laugh over their carcass. But because of Sunday night, he’ll be looked at as that guy, and there’s nothing he can do about it.