It was the block heard 'round the world, at least for Steelers fans.
JuJu Smith-Schuster's crushing block on Cincinnati linebacker Vontaze Burfict was one that, despite it being deemed illegal by the league, won him a special place in a rivalry that has become one of the most heated and physical in the NFL.
Sunday, he'll head back to Cincinnati for the first time since that Dec. 4 game last season when the Steelers (2-2-1) face the Bengals (4-1) for the first time this season.
Smith-Schuster doesn't think he'll have a target on his back and tried to downplay any thoughts Burfict could try to exact retribution.
"I'm fine. My guys got my back," Smith-Schuster said.
The play in question came with just over seven minutes remaining in the Steelers' 23-20 win that saw them rally from a 17-0 first-half deficit in a game that was marred in the first half by a devastating injury to linebacker Ryan Shazier.
The Steelers had trimmed the Cincinnati lead to 20-13 when Smith-Schuster, a rookie, lined up Burfict, a player who had previously knocked Le'Veon Bell and Antonio Brown out of games with questionable hits, on a short pass to Bell.
That's when this happened:
Smith-Schuster drew penalties for unnecessary roughness and taunting on the play for standing over Burfict. He later was suspended for a week by the NFL.
But he only expressed regret over the taunting penalty at the time. The rest of it, as he said then, was just football.
"There was a lot of emotions on both sides of the ball, obviously, with Shazier and what I did," Smith-Schuster said. "But like I said, it's a physical game. That's what you're going to get out of it."
He said he hasn't changed the way he approaches the way he plays because of that play or the accompanying suspension.
"I play the same always. I just play a physical game," Smith-Schuster said.
Burfict, who has been fined or suspended 11 times by the league for various infractions, returned to the Bengals last week after sitting out the first four games of the season because of a suspension for PED use. He blamed his suspension at the time it was announced on the concussion he suffered on that play at the hands of Smith-Schuster. Burfict also was dealing with a shoulder injury.
Smith-Schuster might be trying to downplay the incident now, but in an interview with Bleacher Report during the summer he admitted it had an impact on his everyday life.
"I didn’t know how big it was to take Burfict out like that," he said. "After that hit, I don’t have to pay for anything. When I go to bars, I don’t have to pay for drinks or anything. ‘Yo, we appreciate what you did,’ and stuff like that. I remember my last week here (during the season), I didn’t have to pay for no meals. I went out to eat breakfast, lunch and dinner almost every day and didn’t have to pay for nothing.”