Dan Campbell: If you attack "their brother" Brian Branch, Lions players will respond

The Lions have dominated the news this week, in the aftermath of Sunday night’s loss to the Chiefs. From the rule regarding the Jared Goff touchdown catch to the way the play was officiated to safety Brian Branch hitting receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster after the game to Branch’s suspension to the appeal of the suspension to the NFL Films clip criticizing Branch to the reaction to it, it’s been all about the Lions of late.

On Saturday, coach Dan Campbell was asked by reporters about multiple players taking issue with the league-owned media company attempting to make Branch look bad.

“We overcome adversity, and, listen, that’s their brother, man,” Campbell said. “And if you’re gonna attack their brother, that’s what they’re gonna do. So, you know, we got a tight knit group, and I already mentioned this, man. BB’s a good dude. So he’s paying for what happened and he’ll be back, ready to go for Minnesota.”

Campbell then was asked whether the issue could become a distraction for the team.

“We can’t worry about those things, particularly when it comes to playing, man,” Campbell said. “If we sit here and worry about that, or what could be called or not called, or, man, it’s all these other things that have nothing to do with us. We have no control over any of that other than the way we play. And we got to cut it loose and play our style of football, period. And we do that, we like our chances always. So that’s the most important thing. Our guys know that. We assume that we’re going to get nothing to go our way, and, you know, and that’s OK. I mean, seriously, that’s the game, man. There’s always calls. Every team, that happens one way or another, and you got to overcome them, and the good teams always do. So we’re not worried about it.”

Although the question focused on the Branch situation, Campbell seemed to sneak in a general reference to the notion that “we’re going to get nothing to go our way.” Which could be a roundabout way to voice his lingering objection to, as he said Wednesday, the league office calling for the flag on the Goff play, in violation of the rulebook.

That’s the biggest item, in our view, coming out of Sunday night’s game. If Campbell’s interpretation is accurate, the NFL has opened Pandora’s box — and it will be critical during the offseason rule-tweaking process to get the situation under control.

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