The penalties continue to pile up for the Detroit Lions following their Week 6 contest against the Kansas City Chiefs.
On Saturday, the NFL announced that it had fined Lions linebacker Alex Anzalone and defensive lineman Tyler Lacy for unnecessary roughness, with the additional note of “striking/kicking/tripping/kneeing.”
Anzalone was fined $12,172, while Lacy received a fine of $5,722.
According to Spotrac, this marks Anzalone’s first fine since the 2023 campaign, while it is also Lacy’s first since entering the league that same year.
The two Lions defenders now join teammate Brian Branch among those disciplined by the league office for incidents stemming from their Week 6 matchup.
Earlier this week, the NFL suspended the Lions’ safety for Monday night’s game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers due to his actions following the contest.
Branch was involved in a postgame altercation with Chiefs receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster, shoving him to the ground, which prompted both teams to step in and separate the two.
Curiously, neither Smith-Schuster nor Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes received fines this week for their roles in Sunday’s matchup.
With 37 seconds left in the first half, Mahomes scored on a one-yard run to give Kansas City a 13-10 lead. After the touchdown, he appeared to taunt Branch, pointing and flexing in his direction on camera.
Later in the fourth quarter, with just over three minutes left in regulation, Smith-Schuster delivered what looked like an illegal block in the back on Branch, knocking him to the turf.
Speaking with reporters postgame, Branch hinted that Smith-Schuster’s actions were what sparked the postgame scuffle between them.
“It was a childish move, but I’m tired of guys doing stuff between plays and the refs missing it,” Branch said afterward. “They keep trying to mess with me out there. I shouldn’t have reacted. It was childish.”
Between the botched trick play involving quarterback Jared Goff, the NFL’s role in the call, Branch’s postgame altercation, the recently deleted NFL Films video criticizing him, and now the fines for Anzalone and Lacy, it’s been a turbulent week for Detroit.
The Lions will look to move forward on Monday when they face the Buccaneers in their second straight primetime game — a high-stakes NFC showdown at Ford Field.