OWINGS MILLS, Md. -- If Steve Smith Sr. is healthy enough to play Sunday, the Baltimore Ravens will get back their No. 1 wide receiver and Pittsburgh Steelers safety Mike Mitchell will get a bull's-eye on his jersey.
Sunday's game could mark the first meeting between Smith and Mitchell since Smith declared he was on his "lifetime hit list." Smith is listed as questionable with an ankle injury.
Why is Mitchell a marked man? Smith took it personally that a former teammate celebrated him getting injured. According to Smith, Mitchell clapped and yelled to him, "How do you like that!" after Smith took a shot to the back and fell to the ground last season. Smith and Mitchell played in Carolina together in 2013.
"He is one of the people I will hunt up when I come back for my final season,” Smith told ESPN Radio in January. “I make enough money so I’m willing to take whatever fine I can get because I still have some change left over.”
Smith initially put Mitchell on the list when he thought Mitchell had speared him. After learning it was Lawrence Timmons who delivered the shot in the back -- which caused microfractures -- Smith didn't back down from his comments.
“You get on it because you’re stupid,” Smith said.
What irked Smith is that Mitchell's reaction came after he had helped him in the offseason. Mitchell called Smith for contract advice when he was leaving Carolina before the 2014 season, and they spent an hour on the phone, according to Smith.
Mitchell shrugged off Smith's comments last year.
“It is something that he tries to use to fuel himself,” Mitchell said. “It isn’t even something I concern myself with. I didn’t think of anything when I heard about it, and I don’t think anything about it now. I am going to continue on and play football.”
Smith was not made available to reporters Friday after he had his first full practice of the week.