A.J. Hawk is a large man.

He's a large man who gets paid to hit other large men hard.

The Cincinnati Bengals linebacker wasn't given a large sum of money to hit anyone Thursday at the American Century Championship celebrity golf tournament in Lake Tahoe, Nevada, but he did it anyway, laying a booming tackle on a willing, non-padded participant.

In what has become a yearly tradition at the tournament, Hawk blasted Rio Linda, California, native Ben Heaps, 35, with the cameras rolling. It was the second straight year Heaps gave consent to let Hawk tee off on him.

“He did it with complete disregard,” Heaps said, laughing on the other end of the telephone Friday evening. “It’s amazing what you’ll do when you get a couple beers in you.”

Coors Light and Bud Light were the beverages of choice for Heaps and his friends. But beers aside, Heaps said the original decision to be tackled came from a spur-of-the-moment idea.

“Last year it started as the guys in my group saying we just wanted to do something fun, and I figured as one of the bigger guys in my group, why not me?” Heaps said.

This year, some extra thought went into the tackle, but not much. Heaps and his group -- some 47 others from WimZr, a Sacramento-based social-media app designed for travelers -- weren’t planning on doing anything when they arrived to the tournament earlier this week. But when camera crews from NBC started coming to the group’s perch around the seventh hole inquiring about whether Heaps wanted to be tackled again, he relented.

Heaps said he’d do it again, but on the condition of being tackled while attempting to make a catch. One of his coworkers was a former college quarterback who said he could overthrow Heaps “since he did so much of that during his career.”

When Heaps raised his arm for the fateful attempt, Hawk approached with a hard two-armed push. A split second after contact, Heaps landed hard on his back and the GoPro camera that was beneath him. He got up right away, and gave high fives and hugs to Hawk and another man who served as quarterback.

“The GoPro broke my fall,” said Heaps, who was just three months removed from bicep tendon surgery.

Amazingly, the entire sequence was done on just one take. Heaps' back had to be grateful.

Heaps said he felt “fantastic” after the tackle. The only injuries he’s received in the seven years he has been a spectator at the celebrity tournament came from his hotel beds, he joked.

What does he have in store for next year’s event? For now, that’s a mystery.

“The trilogy’s coming next year. It’s the final one,” he said. “We’ve got to do something big. Something that makes these last two look mediocre.”

A native of Centerville, Ohio, Hawk signed with the Bengals in March as they tried to address depth issues at his position. He comes to Cincinnati after spending the past nine seasons with the Green Bay Packers.