NFL Films Releases and Then Deletes a Video Trashing the Lions Brian Branch After He Accused the Chiefs of Bullying Him

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A week that began with pretty much everyone in the country getting the feeling that something was weirdly … off? … about the Lions at Chiefs game, has only gotten stranger. And that is saying something. 

When two of the best teams from last season face off on prime time, you'd think the NFL would keep things as buttoned up as possible, knowing the ratings will be off the charts. But the whole thing felt surreal. Not quite right in a way that it was hard to put your finger on exactly. Between very suspect calls that somebody has to be lying about: 

… all of which broke (stop me if you've heard this before) in Kansas City's favor:

Followed by tempers boiling over at the end:

And as the week has gone on, these Stranger Things have gone fully into the Upside Down, thanks to the league itself. Thanks to their Ministry of Propaganda and Public Enlightenment, NFL Films, of whom I'm a huge fan. Always have been. But it was nothing short of bizarre that they would follow up this game by producing this hit piece on Brian Branch, and then deleting it once the damage to one of their own players was done:

Pride of Detroit - [O] n Thursday, NFL Films added insult to injury, posting a weird and insulting video as a part of their “NFL Turning Point” online show.

The video, which tries to put Branch’s frustrating night against the Chiefs into context, comes off as strangely insulting for a video produced by the league. While trying to display Branch’s increasing anger throughout the game, the video unnecessarily shows Branch getting beaten several times [Editor’s note: sometimes incorrectly assigning blame] and missing a tackle or two. They finally get to the actual highlight that is relevant to Branch’s frustrations—when JuJu Smith-Schuster throws an illegal block from the back that Branch specifically pointed to as the reason he was upset.

But perhaps even worse was the odd narration from former NFL player and front office employee Louis Riddick. Both his tone and his choice of words are over-the-top insulting. Here’s a transcript of the short clip:

“It was a long game for Lions safety Brian Branch, number 32. He got burned by (Travis) Kelce’s basketball move. He got showed up by (Patrick) Mahomes. He got juked by Xavier Worthy, and took a shot from JuJu Smith-Schuster. The turning point led to Branch’s boiling point.”

At some point during Thursday evening, the NFL realized the inappropriateness of insulting their own player like this and took  down the video.

For a league struggling to push back against a very legitimate public outcry against calls always going Kansas City's way, editing a video for the sole purpose of dragging one player who just got sick of this shit and resorted to throwing knuckles is an exceptionally peculiar choice. 

We can all agree that Branch was all the way out of line. Waiting until the game was over to slap Smith-Schuster across the facemask is a bitch move. Getting suspended and costing your team its starting safety is pure selfishness. Claiming you' were a victim of "bullying" is not the message you want to be sending to the rest of league, especially when your head coach spends every minute of every day trying to project his team's Hardo image to the world. But it was just 10 years ago that the NFL spent millions to investigate claims of "bullying" going on among the Miami Dolphins offensive lineman. That investigation derailed careers and tore the team apart. They pretended to think testosterone-fueled rage monsters talking shit to each other in private texts messages was a major scandal back then. But now in 2025, if a player says he was getting bullied by the Chiefs, they send someone into the editing bay and Louis Riddick into the sound booth to single the guy out like he's the worst player in the league who got what he had coming to him or something. 

I mean, this is the kind of thing you expect to see from a fan account. A 22 year old virgin with a Chiefs pennant and framed Patrick Mahomes jersey on the wall of his bedroom behind him, ranting about how Branch is a little pussy, not from the most respected content creation company in all of sports. 

At the very least, the football public deserves an explanation as to how this this sewer trout made it through the NFL Films pipeline and why they decided to flush it back down. And if I was running the Lions, I wouldn't let it go until there was a full accounting of how and why it ever came into existence. 

And again, as happens so often in a league that goes out of its way to give favorable treatment to one team, you have to ask yourself, would this have happened if the player who claimed he was bullied and started a fight played for the Chiefs? We all know the answer to that one.