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Eric Woodyard, ESPN
ALLEN PARK, Mich. — As Brian Branch prepared to address reporters inside the Detroit Lions‘ locker room after Wednesday’s walk-through practice, one of his teammates shouted, “throw them up, BB,” while passing by.
But Branch, the second-year Lions defensive back, didn’t see his recent actions as a laughing matter.
He was ejected during Detroit’s 24-14 win Sunday versus Green Bay after delivering a late hit on Packers receiver Bo Melton at 6:18 in the second quarter with the Lions leading 7-3 at Lambeau Field. Then before exiting the field, Branch flipped off the crowd in apparent frustration and was flagged for another unsportsmanlike conduct penalty.
Branch apologized for flipping double birds to the Green Bay crowd and said he agreed with the referee’s call.
“That’s not something I wanted to show or want people to notice me as that,” Branch said. “That was just the heat of the moment for me, and I apologize to everyone who seen that and that won’t happen again.”
After watching a replay of the hit, Lions defensive assistant Jim O’Neil called it hard to find a teaching point from that situation. The coaching staff’s immediate answer was to encourage Branch to lower his target, but nobody thought he had malicious intent in the moment to hurt anyone. Branch expressed that as well.
“I most definitely agree with the call. My target was obviously high, but that was never my intentions to aim for the head,” Branch said. “Moving forward I do have to move my target down.”
Lions wide receiver Jameson Williams also officially returned from his two-game suspension this week for violating the NFL’s performance-enhancing substances policy.
Coach Dan Campbell said they won’t waste any time getting him back involved in the offense.
“He’s been here. So, he couldn’t be out there in practice, but he was here training, we had him running, he’s in the meetings … all of that,” Campbell said on Monday. “So, he’s been here and honestly, throwing him back in there. I mean, he’s going. Let’s go.
“So, we’re gonna kick him out there with the offense and get him going. I expect him to be ready to roll.”
Williams called it “big” to receive that support from Campbell during those times and said he’s learned to “move smarter and be a bigger person in certain situations.”
However, he wouldn’t go into the full details of his suspension and didn’t have a message to those who may view his recent actions as a distraction.
“It means a lot. That’s my head coach and I’ve been through a lot playing under him and we’ve bumped heads in certain situations, but now I see that he has faith in me, and he understands what happened so it’s big to me with him having faith in me and being along with me in those situations,” Williams said of Campbell.