Among all the injuries the Detroit Lions had coming out of their Week 3 win over the Arizona Cardinals, the helmet-to-helmet collision safety Brian Branch had with Cardinals' tight end Trey McBride was certainly the scariest-looking play.
Both guys left the game with a concussion, and while McBride will miss Arizona's game on Sunday, Branch seemed to be good to go for Monday night against the Seattle Seahawks before being downgraded to doubtful on Sunday morning.
Saturday is the day the NFL levies fines for illegal actions from the previous week's action. Said actions are not always, and quite often not, penalized on the field. How the league office determines the amount of said fines is another matter of discussion. There doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason to that process, outside of if someone is a repeat offender of the same infraction and thus subject to a higher fine.
The Lions received four fines from actions during Week 3. Linebacker Jalen Reeves-Maybin was fined $11,255 for a late hit, while safety Kerby Joseph was fined $7,505 for a late hit on a defenseless player when Terrion Arnold was bringing down Cardinals wide receiver Marvin Harrison Jr. Reeves-Maybin got a deserved unnecessary roughness penalty, while Joseph was not flagged.
Brian Branch fined for hit on Trey McBride
Branch was fined a matching $10,128 for two hits in the game against Arizona. One was for striking/kicking/kneeing an opponent, which appeared to be Cardinals' rookie tight end Tip Reiman, on Matt Prater's 42-yard field goal near the end of the first half.
The other fine was for the aforementioned hit involving McBride.
The NFL fined #Lions S Brian Branch $10,128 for unnecessary roughness/use of helmet last week on the play that put Branch and #Cardinals TE Trey McBride in concussion protocol.
Branch was fined another $10,128 for a separate incident in the game. pic.twitter.com/YZhcB0HkJM— Tom Pelissero (@TomPelissero) September 28, 2024
Though he pretty clearly lowered his head to initiate contact, something the league has tried to legislate out of the game and usually enforces, McBride was not fined. As Jeremy Reisman of Pride of Detroit noted, the rule book does not differentiate between offensive and defensive players when it comes to improper use of the helmet.
"ARTICLE 10. IMPERMISSIBLE USE OF THE HELMET. It is a foul if a player:
(a) lowers his head and makes forcible contact with his helmet against an opponent; or
b) uses any part of his helmet or facemask to butt or make forcible contact to an opponent’s head or neck area. These provisions do not prohibit incidental contact by the mask or the helmet in the course of a conventional tackle or block on an opponent."
This is absolutely absurd. McBride is the aggressor here. Make it make sense https://t.co/VWWZu9x1OM
— Brett Whitefield (@BGWhitefield) September 28, 2024
That isn't to say Branch wasn't guilty of an infraction. But if he was, to the point of being fined retroactively despite there being no penalty on the play, then McBride was too. An appeal, with that as the grounds, seems likely.
