As one of the Steelers' athletic trainers walked through the locker room in the aftermath of the Steelers' 23-20 overtime victory Monday night in Cincinnati, he marveled at Antonio Brown as the receiver finished getting dressed at his locker.
"That's one tough hombre," the trainer said, adding that Brown turned down a pain-killing shot in his right big toe.
Brown played against the Bengals after suffering a sprained toe in a win the previous week against Green Bay. He did not practice all week, and there was some question regarding whether he would play because of his lack of on-field preparation.
But a couple of hours prior to the game, there was Brown on the field -- in full uniform -- running very slow routes with backup quarterback Landry Jones throwing him passes.
"He never does during warmups, so it was kind of normal for what we usually do," Jones told me of Brown's slow-motion warmup. "It was kind of a status quo kind of deal."
The status quo was achieved this week as Brown's smiling face was back on the practice field where he likes to be on Wednesday. He took Thursday off, but was back out there Friday as the Steelers (10-2) completed their work in preparation to host Baltimore (7-5) Sunday night.
But Brown admitted to me the toe was killing him as he warmed up, telling me he couldn't go anywhere close to full speed.
Once the game began, however, he caught a 20-yard back-shoulder pass from Ben Roethlisberger. He finished with eight receptions for 101 yards and a touchdown that tied the game and set the stage for Pittsburgh's seventh consecutive win.
Brown said he and wide receivers coach Richard Mann spent extra time last week going over the game plan to ensure he was mentally prepared.
"It was all up to me. I’m a professional," the NFL's leading receiver said. "Coach Mann gave me all the plays, every rep during the week. I met with him and went over everything and got myself ready to go."
That took care of the mental part. The physical part, however, was completely different.
There aren't many ways to rehabilitate an injury to your big toe.
"You can exercise it, but when it’s swollen and inflamed, you don’t even want to put pressure on it," said Brown, who will wear special cleats in warmups against the Ravens to honor teammate Ryan Shazier.
"You elevate it and have some people try to pull on it, which isn’t comfortable," he added with a pained grin. "You just try to persevere."
Few in the team's locker room, however, doubted Brown would play.
"No. Never," said Jones. "I would have been really surprised if he didn’t go."
Entering Week 14's game against the Ravens, Brown not only leads the Steelers in every receiving category, he leads the league, as well, with 88 receptions for 1,296 yards and nine touchdowns. No receiver has led the league in all three statistics since Steve Smith in 2005. Sterling Sharpe also did it in 1992 and Jerry Rice in 1990. They are the only other players to pull off the trifecta in the NFL since the 1970 merger.
He's not the biggest guy. He's not the fastest. But nobody is going to outwork him.
And his inability to practice last week was something that was out of the ordinary for him.
"I don’t ever take a break. You can always get better," Brown said. "But any time your body is not ready to go, it’s tough. I know what kind of preparation I need to have every week. My body didn’t allow it. I had to mentally prepare and watch all the plays, all the reps mentally. I was just praying my body would be able to get better to give it a go before the game."