The Pittsburgh Steelers travel to the mistake by the lake to play the Cleveland Browns in Week 17 of NFL action. It will be a hat and T-shirt game for the Black and Gold if they take care of business.

Sunday’s game could be a memorable moment for the franchise that has undergone significant changes since the last time the Steelers won the division in 2020.

Not only could it be a historic day in franchise history, that matchup in Cleveland will also come just four days after the 20-year anniversary of one of the more bizarre — yet funny — moments in the long Steelers-Browns rivalry.

That would be the famous James Harrison body slam of a Cleveland Browns fan on Dec. 24, 2005.

On that day, Harrison — a special teams demon and backup outside linebacker at the time — slammed Cleveland’s Nathan Mallett to the turf in the Steelers’ 41-0 blowout win after Mallett came out onto the field.

Twenty years later, thanks to the Post-Gazette’s Noah Hiles, the two were reunited for a dinner in the Pittsburgh area. There, Mallett stated that he’s 16 years sober, was on a bender that day, and that Harrison “slammed some sense” into him, leading to him turning his life around.

“I’m pretty pumped that we were able to do this,” Mallett said to Harrison, according to video via the Post-Gazette. “I just want to say thank you, because I think you slammed some sense into me.”

While Harrison put together a Hall of Fame-caliber career, recording 811 tackles, 84.5 sacks, eight interceptions, 34 forced fumbles and nine fumble recoveries, he’s most famous for a few moments in his playing career.

Of course, there’s the 100-yard pick-six in Super Bowl XLIII to help beat the Arizona Cardinals. There are also the violent hits on players, ironically from the Cleveland Browns, that led to significant NFL punishment and a change in the game as we know it.

Then, there’s that viral moment where he slammed Mallett to the turf.

It came late in the Steelers’ blowout win, and according to Mallett, he was drinking heavily the day before the game, which was his birthday, and never stopped. At one point during the game, Mallett told friends that he could get to Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger faster than the Browns’ defense could.

At the time of Mallett’s dash onto the field, Roethlisberger wasn’t in the game due to the score. Instead, he tried to go after running back Verron Haynes. That didn’t work, and Browns defensive lineman Kenard Lang shoved Mallett, who made his way toward the Steelers’ sideline.

That’s when Harrison came up behind him, slammed him down and pinned him to the turf until security arrived. For Harrison, he remembers the moment for one reason: what Mallett said while staring up at him.

“After I slammed you, you kind of didn’t know what the hell was going on,” Harrison said to Mallett. “You looked around and looked up at me. You were like, ‘Oh yeah, I got your ass now!’”

It’s a line that Harrison has shared before. In that moment, Harrison stated previously that he was just trying to get the Steelers’ street credibility back after Haynes dodged Mallett on the field.

But after slamming him to the turf, Harrison said security roughed Mallett up in a big way. Mallett then spent Christmas morning in jail. But that incident helped turn his life around.

Eventually, after another bad moment in his life a few years later that involved more poor decisions with alcohol, Mallett wound up in jail for 60 days and reflected on his life’s choices. That Harrison moment replayed in his head, too.

Now, he’s 16 years sober, and that journey to sobriety all started thanks to Harrison slamming him to the cold, hard ground in Cleveland the day before Christmas.