Antonio Brown yells ‘karma’ as JuJu Smith-Schuster talks about hit on Vontaze Burfict

The Pittsburgh Steelers and Cincinnati Bengals played one of the more violent football games in recent memory last night, resulting in some serious injuries.

First, Ryan Shazier suffered a spinal injury after making a tackle. But then later in the game, Steelers wide receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster delivered a punishing hit on Bengals linebacker Vontaze Burfict, and stared him down afterward.

Smith-Schuster would be suspended one game for the hit:

After the game, Smith-Schuster was talking about the hit, where Antonio Brown can be heard in the background shouting “karma!”

Brown isn’t just being silly as he does this.

In a 2016 AFC Wild Card game between the Steelers and Bengals — also in Cincinnati — Burfict delivered a vicious helmet-to-helmet hit on Brown.

The Steelers would end up winning that game by a final score of 18-16. Brown would not play the following week against the Broncos, losing a 23-16 game against the eventual Super Bowl champions.

Burfict kept a low profile with the media after committing the hit, but reportedly apologized to Brown for it.

“[He was] just saying he didn’t have no intentions of trying to injure, that it was a football move,” Brown said of Burfict’s apology, via ESPN. “You know, it’s football. It’s not intentional. Play the game long enough, you may take a shot or two. It’s great to be able to bounce back and I’m excited to be in Cincinnati this weekend.”

But clearly, that hasn’t stuck.

Now, nearly two years after the fact, Burfict said in a profile in ESPN Magazine he thinks Brown was acting when he got hit:

“HE FAKED THAT,” Burfict says casually of the Brown hit before quickly trying to wave his own observation away. He knows instantly how the comment will be received, and it’s easy to see he wishes he hadn’t said it.

After saying Brown faked the injury, Burfict somewhat backtracked on his initial strong claim that he faked it.

Later, Burfict returns to his account of the Brown hit, reluctantly drawn into an explanation very few will agree with: “I feel like he looked at me. The ball tipped off his hands and he kind of put his head towards my area, and I tried to fade off of him at the last second, but he initially tried to make contact because he knew he could get the flag. And just the way he went down, it was just like — I don’t know man.”

Adam Jones, who also received a penalty in that same 2016 Wild Card game that Burfict did, went on The Dan Patrick Show to say Brown deserved an award for acting. He later apologized after Brown was ruled out from playing the following week.

This rivalry isn’t going anywhere. The two teams are in the AFC North, and will be playing each other at least twice a year with largely the same rosters. There’s no telling what next year will bring, but hopefully it’s much safer.