If the Steelers lose to the Ravens on "Sunday Night Football" and miss the playoffs, DK Metcalf will always be remembered for his role in the team's downfall.

No one will remember he led the team in receiving yards or touchdowns. The lasting image will be Metcalf putting his hands on Detroit Lions fan Ryan Kennedy, an act that resulted in a two-game suspension by the NFL "for conduct detrimental to the league."

The NFL hasn't been shy about suspending stars. Ben Roethlisberger was suspended for the first four games of the 2010 season. The Steelers went 3-1 in his absence and still reached the Super Bowl. In 2016, the NFL suspended Tom Brady for four games. The Patriots also went 3-1 without Brady, and they ended up winning the Super Bowl.

But those suspensions were at the beginning of the season. The timing of the Metcalf suspension makes it unique, but it's not first and won't be the last time the NFL suspends a player late in the season.

If the Steelers lose both games without Metcalf — and blow a two-game lead over the Ravens with two games to go — the NFL's decision could go down as the most impactful punishment the league has ever issued.

The Steelers had to play without Metcalf for the first time this season in the 13-6 loss to the Cleveland Browns, and the offense's performance showed how important Metcalf is to the unit. The Steelers had just 292 yards in the game, and 73 of those came on the frantic final drive when the Browns were in their prevent defense.

That means for 58 minutes of the game, the Steelers had 219 yards on their 10 previous possessions, which equates to 29 yards per drive. The Steelers ran only six plays from inside the Cleveland 20-yard line, and five of those came in the final seconds of the game. They went three-and-out four times and got just one first down on two other drives.

They'll be hoping for better results in the winner-take-all contest against the Ravens. A victory would lessen the burden on Metcalf, as he would return to the team on Monday and be eligible to play in the team's first playoff game. A loss, however, would forever stain his reputation and give him a permanent spot in the Steelers Hall of Shame.

Whatever happens on Sunday night, Metcalf has company when it comes to players putting their team at a big disadvantage late in the season. Here are some of the NFL's other suspensions that greatly affected the postseason:

A super blunder

Perhaps the most dramatic NFL suspension came from former commissioner Pete Rozelle on Jan. 22, 1989, the day the San Francisco 49ers and Cincinnati Bengals played in Super Bowl XXIII.

Bengals running back Stanley Wilson was suspended just hours before the game following an incident the night before involving cocaine at the team hotel. Wilson had lost his starting job to Ickey Woods earlier in the season, but he remained a critical part of the Bengals offense.

Wilson rushed for 398 yards and scored two touchdowns during the regular season. He was more impactful in the playoffs, scoring the first two touchdowns in Cincinnati's 21-13 victory over Seattle in an AFC divisional round game.

There are many in Cincinnati who believe if Wilson was able to play in Super Bowl XXIII, the Bengals would have beaten the 49ers, who won the game in dramatic fashion when Joe Montana orchestrated a touchdown drive in the final minutes for a 20-16 win.

"Stanley was a critical loss," Bengals owner and team president Mike Brown told Cincinnati.com in 2017. "He had the kind of ability that could have run on that field. That field was terrible. It was much worse than people describe. It was literally just a beach. Stanley had a broad-based running style, great balance. I think if we had had Stanley, he would have been a difference maker in that game."

The shot heard 'round the NFL world

In 2008, the New York Giants were the defending Super Bowl champions and Plaxico Burress was a big star in the Big Apple. Ten months earlier, he was a Super Bowl hero when he caught the winning touchdown in the Giants' upset of the Patriots in Super Bowl XLII.

On Dec. 2, his life and career would change forever. That's the day the Giants suspended Burress for the remainder of the season — the NFL would later follow up with a two-year suspension — following his arrest for weapons charges following an incident at a Manhattan nightclub when he accidentally shot himself in the leg.

The arrest and subsequent suspension had a huge impact on the Giants. Before the incident, they were 12-1. After he was suspended, they lost four of their final five games, including a home playoff game to the Eagles.

The Giants were the top seed in the NFC playoffs, but they did not score a touchdown in a 23-11 loss to their rivals. In four of the five games the Giants played without Burress, they scored 19 points or fewer.

Former Giants center Shaun O'Hara told the New York Post in 2020 the 2008 Giants team was better than the '07 team that won the Super Bowl.

"It was by far the best team I'd ever been on," O'Hara said.

But things drastically changed when the Giants had to play without Burress.

"We still were a good team, but when we struggled to run the football or teams found ways to stuff us a little bit, we really lost that go-to guy in the passing game," he said. "That kind of made us one-dimensional at times."

Burress, who was originally drafted by the Steelers and played his first four NFL seasons in Pittsburgh, was never the same after the suspension. He was reinstated by the NFL in 2011, playing in 16 games with the Jets and then four more with the Steelers in 2012 before he retired.

The Giants struggled and missed the playoffs without Burress in 2009 and 2010, but they made it back to the postseason in 2011 and won their second Super Bowl in four seasons with another victory over the Patriots in Super Bowl XLVI.

A big Lett-down

In 1996, the Dallas Cowboys were fresh off their Super Bowl XXX victory against the Steelers, their third Super Bowl title in a four-year span. Oversized defensive lineman Leon Lett was a big part of the Cowboys defense in those years, but problems with substance abuse ruined his career.

On Dec. 4, 1996, the NFL suspended Lett for the remainder of the season for violating the league's substance-abuse policy. The Cowboys went 3-2 without Lett, but their run of dominance ended with a loss to the Carolina Panthers in an NFC divisional round playoff game.

The Cowboys had several players with off-field issues by '96. Star receiver Michael Irvin was suspended for the first five games of the season for cocaine possession. That was the beginning of the Cowboys' problems, as they stumbled out of the gates with three losses in their first five games.

Lett's suspension and its timing was something they could not overcome. A defense that was so dominant during their Super Bowl run became ordinary without Lett. The Cowboys allowed 37 points to Washington in the final game of the regular season and 26 points to Carolina in the playoff game.

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