Commanders DT Daron Payne ejected after punching Lions WR Amon-Ra St. Brown in the helmet

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Daron Payne turned and swung on Amon-Ra St. Brown suddenly after the Lions scored a touchdown in the second quarter on Sunday afternoon. (Perry Knotts/Getty Images)
Perry Knotts via Getty Images

Daron Payne was thrown out of their matchup with the Detroit Lions early on Sunday afternoon after he punched Amon-Ra St. Brown suddenly in the facemask.

The Washington Commanders defensive tackle, after Jahmyr Gibbs ran in a 13-yard score in the second quarter at Northwest Stadium, turned and threw a right hook at St. Brown and connected square in the helmet. It’s unclear what led up to that incident or what was said between the two players ahead of time.

Footage of the Daron Payne incident.

Yeahhhh you can't do that. That was stupid, especially from a veteran.

The frustration of these players is boiling over. #RaiseHailpic.twitter.com/wzT0m6VVfK

— Chad Ryan (@ChadwikoTWW) November 9, 2025

It didn’t escalate much after that, but officials quickly hit Payne with an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty and ejected him from the contest. The penalty moved the Lions up closer after the touchdown, too, and set up an easy two-point conversion run from David Montgomery. That put the Lions up 22-3 at the time.

Payne, in his eighth season in the league, is among the highest-paid players on the team. He signed a four-year, $90 million extension with the franchise ahead of the 2023 campaign. The 28-year-old, who the Commanders took with the No. 13 overall pick out of Alabama in 2018, entered Sunday with 30 total tackles and one sack so far this season. He did not have a tackle before he was ejected on Sunday.


While punching an opposing player is never a good idea, especially when they are wearing a helmet, it’s easy to see why Payne may have been frustrated. The Lions had built up a quick 14-3 lead before Gibbs’ score midway through the second quarter, and ended up taking a 15-point lead into the locker room at halftime.

The Commanders looked well on their way to what would be a fifth straight loss. They are without quarterback Jayden Daniels, too, after he went down with a gruesome elbow injury in garbage time of last week’s blowout loss to the Seattle Seahawks. It’s been a rapid downfall for the team that went 12-5 last year and made the playoffs for the first time since 2020.

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