“With just under two minutes remaining before halftime of last Sunday’s game against the Buffalo Bills, Branch was in coverage on receiver Mack Hollins and forced an incompletion. Branch got up, did a common celebration for defensive backs — he emulated putting on a seatbelt — and had some words for Hollins.
Branch has been fined five other times this season, once against the Houston Texans in Week 10, twice against the Green Bay Packers in Week 9 and twice against the Arizona Cardinals in Week 3. Four of the infractions were for unnecessary roughness, and one was for unsportsmanlike conduct”
Seems like an excessive fine especially for a player on his rookie contract. Also seems like the league has it out for Branch a little bit. Not sure why the NFL is targeting one of the best young defensive players in the league?
On a slightly different note, during the Ravens game a Baltimore DB clearly taunted the Steelers on a pick six…no penalty. My mind instantly raced back to Gibbs a few weeks back when he slightly taunted the other team after scoring a TD…Bam…unsportsmanlike penalty…15 yards.
I thought the exact same thing when I saw that Ravens defender holding the ball back towards the offensive player before he even got to the 5 yard line
Yeah it’s a seat belt. Its supposed to show you are “strapping them in”. Jaire Alexander I know does it a ton. On my son’s HS team he played safety and they loved doing these moves. Which is hilarious because they rarely were strapping anyone in…
A few other db celebrations are the drawing a box with your fingers like a mime “I’ve got him boxed in” usually followed by the thumbs down or putting your arms in an X “I’ve got him in clamps”.
In the 2022 Green Bay game after Chark makes the big 4th down catch against Jaire, you can see both he and Amon Ra GLEEFULLY reaching up and mocking the seat belt strap celebration right in Jaire’s face.
Yesterday during the Steelers-Ravens game, you had Russell Wilson CLEARLY get facemasked and AGAIN, no flag. Facemasking is one of the easiest calls to see for an official, and how many times this year as a QUARTERBACK, the primary ball carrier and the most protected player on the field, had his facemask grabbed and head completely turned but yet not flag. Not only did this happen, you then had the announcers bring in Mike Periera, a former official, who then tries to gaslight us into "Oh, that was incidental contact, he really grabbed his shoulders and his arm brushed the facemask so that was not a grab and pull. Meanwhile, the replay clearly shows fingers going inside (hot) the facemask and pulling. Hey Mike, do you remember the call with Willie Young where Aaron Rodgers was sacked to end the game, but because Young’s pinkie brushed Rodgers’ facemask it was an automatic 15 yard penalty and untimed down play which led to a game winning hail mary?
Meanwhile, you have the Kansas City Cheats, who had their customary “You hit the glorious king too hard for our liking, 15 yards and automatic first down” call, followed up with “You sacked Mahomes on 3rd down, that’s unacceptable. Clearly there was cheating somewhere. Oh yes, DHOP stumbled. That’s an obvious defensive holding, automatic first down to save the drive.”
Also meanwhile, you still have Juwan lining up illegally nearly every single play, and false starting nearly every single play, and that’s cool. He’s protecting the king afterall. I know people think its tinfoil hat stuff, and I am glad the Lions have gotten some of the calls going our way since we got better, but I will always maintain the NFL is a fixed league until they employ full time officials. The NFL is literally the ONLY professional sports league that does not use full time officials. Gee, I wonder why that is?
The DBs made that the seat belt gang celebration when Jerry Jacob’s was there. I’m Not sure why there’s a fine for this. Everyone is doing it now. He must have said something in appropriate.
Facemask penalties are always easy to see after the fact, but sometimes no official is in position to see it, they happen pretty quick.
I heard that the league is going to consider making two penalties - facemask and horsecollar reviewable. So, even if no facemask was called, “New York” can review it and enforce it.
That was pure BS. It wasn’t even CLOSE to holding.
When you see a ball carrier running one direction, then you see his head get jerked quickly to the side and not in a direction he is trying to go, you know a facemask happened. When the common fan can see that happen live from the stands, and a referee who is specifically trained to look for visual cues and has the best seat in the house misses it, that’s just a c’mon man.
The Sam Darnold-Rams facemask was obvious. The Joe Burrow-Dallas facemask was obvious. Wilson’s was obvious. These are plays that should never be missed by an official at any level, especially the top level in football. I will guarantee all of these calls are made by college officials, who I believe are better than NFL officials. These calls magically continue to be missed, but the smallest microsm of pass interference is somehow an immediate flag.
For a league that supposedly is all about player safety, a call involving someone grabbing the facemask and twisting their neck at a 90 degree angle while being contacted is a serious safety issue, but yet we keep missing seeing that. Bumping a receiver .5 seconds before the ball arrives is not a safety issue, but somehow that call gets priority.
The league is clearly setting BB up for a lengthy suspension. It’s clear as day. And they’ll reference how many times he’s been fined, plus when he was tossed, when they do. The league clearly doesn’t like how he plays.
