The Kansas City Chiefs and Detroit Lions clashed in a huge brawl as time expired on Sunday Night Football at Arrowhead Stadium.
Thanks to a solid performance from both the offense and defense, the Chiefs secured a 30-17 win over the Lions who might feel aggrieved by officiating. However, things turned ugly after the game, which was watched by Taylor Swift and Caitlin Clark, ended.
The fight appeared to start moments after the Chiefs lined up in victory formation and sealed the victory. Lions safety Brian Branch, clearly frustrated by Chiefs receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster, walked past Kareem Hunt and Patrick Mahomes - who was trying to shake his hand - as both the running back and quarterback tried to calm him down.
As Smith-Schuster held his hand out to be shook, Branch punched the Chiefs star in the helmet, sending him to the floor. The receiver reacted furiously; he sprinted back to Branch, who was being ushered away by Hunt, and punched him back.
Branch then grabbed Smith-Schuster by the facemask and threw the receiver to the turf again, only to fall himself while the likes of Trent McDuffie and Mahomes desperately attempted to break the fight up. The two men continued to fight on the turf as Chiefs and Lions players tried to intervene.
While Mike Tirico referred to the clash as a “pretty significant brawl,” NBC commentator Cris Collinsworth said: “Brian Branch was involved in something, there was a little exchange and people came running… the league’s going to take action on that one, against Branch.”
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A Lions-Chiefs fight breaks out as the clock is running out on SNF.
"The league's gonna take action on that one against (Brian) Branch." - Cris Collinsworth #NFL #SNF pic.twitter.com/axfzYqp6MJ
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) October 13, 2025
The fight saw the entire rosters of both teams get involved in ugly scenes that marred the win for the Chiefs. Smith-Schuster had a towel over his nose as he made his way back to the locker room, suggesting he came off slightly worse for wear than Branch.
Addressing the scuffle after the game, Mahomes told NBC: "We play the game in between the whistles. They can do all the extracurricular stuff they want to do, but we play the game in between the whistles. We thought we played a great game today, and we’ll keep this momentum moving forward."
The Chiefs secured the win thanks to a stellar performance by Mahomes, who dissected the Detroit defense at will with 22 of 30 completions for 257 yards and three touchdowns. He found Hollywood Brown twice in the end zone.
Meanwhile, it was a frustrating loss for the Lions. The defense couldn’t get anything going, calls didn’t go their way, and Amon-Ra St. Brown was somewhat bottled up.
The 3-3 Chiefs are next in action against the Las Vegas Raiders at Arrowhead on Sunday, Oct. 19. The 4-2 Lions will take on Baker Mayfield's high-flying 5-1 Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Monday Night Football on Oct. 20.