NFL fans were left outraged on Thursday night when Lions safety Kerby Joseph dove low towards the Packers’ Tucker Kraft and nearly hit him in the knee.
Kraft was running with the ball after a catch in the third quarter when Joseph launched himself helmet-first towards the tight end.
The Green Bay player managed to hop out of the way before being tackled by a pair of Joseph’s teammates, but fans were quick to criticize the ‘dirty’ defensive back – who has delivered some controversial low hits before.
‘Kerby Joseph continues to do this crap. Head down, targeting the knees. He belongs out of the league,’ one fan wrote on X under a video of the incident.
‘This hit lands, it possibly puts Kraft out for the year, and maybe longer. Wake up @NFL this dude hunts knees,’ another said.
‘That dirty f*** dove head first into bros knees,’ a third fan added.
Kraft realized Kerby Joseph has a tendency to hunt knees and punked him. Also nailed the landing pic.twitter.com/d3EtbMPrvr
— Thomas Sullivan (@Yfz84) December 6, 2024
And a fourth said, ‘[Kerby] Joseph knows he can’t tackle fairly, so his only move is to try and ruin good players’ careers.’
Just last season, Joseph delivered two season-ending hits, as low tackles to the knees of T.J. Hockenson and Tyler Higbee caused both tight ends to tear their ACLs.
Kraft referenced those tackles earlier this week, before the Packers’ eventual 34-31 loss on Thursday.
‘He’s a good DB,’ Kraft said, via Green Bay Packers On SI. ‘I might not agree with some of the places he likes to lay contact. He’s taken some of my brothers out of the game and I think about that, too. I get my chance to get my hands on him playing football.’
And the pair had an altercation before the game, as both teams headed back into the locker room following pregame warmups.
Footage from Amazon Prime Video shows the pair trading some words, while Kraft said after the game that Joseph had instigated the incident.
‘He was waiting for me to walk into the tunnel and he had some words for me,’ Kraft said.
‘So, I just let him know he’s not going to do anything to me. I don’t think he did. Yeah. I talked that s*** early in the week and I stood on it. I didn’t mean for it to go the distance it went but when it did, I stood on that.’
Joseph, meanwhile deflected a question about Kraft and pretended to not know who he was.
‘You talking about the mac and cheese Kraft? I don’t know who that boy is,’ Joseph said.’
Despite the loss, Kraft racked up 41 yards and a touchdown – bringing him to 521 yards and seven scores on the season.
