Mike Mitchell has a reputation for playing dirty and he did nothing to dissuade his detractors of that notion late in Sunday's game against the Chiefs. The Steelers safety blitzed quarterback Alex Smith, missing him on the first pass but getting what looks to be the cheapest of cheap shots after Smith had thrown the ball downfield:

You can't see it in the clip above, but Mitchell also looked like he grabbed Smith's facemask earlier in the play before going low on the quarterback seconds later. Not surprisingly, the normally even-keeled Smith was fired up.

"Certainly when I got fired up, I thought [the hit] was pretty late,'' he said after the game, via ESPN.com's Adam Teicher. "I mean, when you get hit in the back of your knee like that, I didn't understand how that happened. Certainly guys falling, rushing the quarterback, I get it when it's happening from the front and guys are trying hard. That one to me just seemed so weird to get hit that low coming from behind."

So did Smith think Mitchell diving at the back of his knees was intentional?

"I haven't seen the play, so I couldn't tell you,'' Smith said. "Just fired up at the time.''

The Zapruder version of the tape appears to show Steelers linebacker Anthony Chickillo pushing Mitchell, though it's hard to imagine that was enough to send him flying into the back of Smith's legs. 

Either way, Mitchell will almost certainly be fined. Meanwhile, Pro Football Talk's Micheal David Smith raises an interesting point: