Bengals series has important meaning

Pittsburgh's midseason win over Cincinnati in 1976 was key.
PITTSBURGH (AP) -- Leather briefcases with bright red ribbons. Pellets drenched with sheep urine littering a smelly playing field. Franco Harris churning through the snow. A dynasty started. A nickname given.
The Steelers-Bengals rivalry has never compared to Browns-Steelers, Packers-Bears or even Bengals-Browns for intensity, fan interest or entertainment value. Despite playing in the same division for 35 seasons, the Bengals and Steelers have rarely been good in the same season, partly because the Bengals have been so bad for so long.
Significance
Remarkably, when the Steelers (3-2) and AFC North-leading Bengals (5-1) play today in Cincinnati, it will be the first time both have had winning records when they met since Nov. 18, 1990 -- a span of 30 games. There was no Big Ben back then, but the quarterbacks were named Bubby (Brister) and Boomer (Esiason). And four-time Super Bowl champion Chuck Noll was in his next-to-last season as Pittsburgh's coach.
What has been largely forgotten over time is this rivalry spawned those four-time Super Bowl champions, during twice-a-season meetings that have featured curious games, quirky personalities and big names. (For starters, how about Hall of Fame owners Paul Brown and Art Rooney Sr.?)
And while many trace the roots of the Steelers' four-seasons-in-six years title run in the 1970s to the Immaculate Reception 1972 playoff game against the Raiders, many of the team's Hall of Famers cite a midseason 40-17 rout of the Bengals that season for being the real championship catalyst.
New talent
The Steelers, coming off eight consecutive losing seasons but fortified with young talent that included Joe Greene, Jack Ham, Terry Bradshaw and Franco Harris, were 5-2 but had lost 15-10 earlier in Cincinnati. The Bengals also were 5-2, so the game was for first place in the AFC Central during what then was a 14-game season.
It was the first time since the Steelers had moved into Three Rivers Stadium two years before that there was a championship air before a regular season game, and it had been a sellout for weeks -- a rarity back then. That week, defensive end Dwight White dared to mention the words "Super Bowl," a comical notion until then to a franchise that had played 40 seasons without winning a title of any kind.
Ham, usually not given to hyperbole, was revved up, saying he couldn't remember being so excited about a game. For good reason, too -- the Steelers, whipped to what Bengals owner-coach Brown called "an emotional frenzy," paid back the Bengals by winning 40-17.
Afterward, Noll said the game should have convinced all skeptics the Steelers were "a great team." He was right, as they lost only once during an 11-game span before being beaten by the unbeaten Dolphins 21-17 in the AFC title game. Two years later, the Steelers indeed were Super Bowl champions.
Series standing
There have been other highlights, too, in a Steelers-Bengals series that has seen the Steelers win 41 of 69 meetings.
In 1976, with the Bengals (10-4) looking to wrest the division title from the defending Super Bowl champion Steelers (10-4), Pittsburgh won both regular season meetings even with Bradshaw injured. Harris carried a career-high 41 times for 143 yards in a 23-6 win in Pittsburgh, then ran for 87 yards and the game's only touchdown as the Steelers won 7-3 in a Cincinnati snowstorm behind rookie QB Mike Kruczek.
A year later, after a Houston upset of Cincinnati during the final weekend of the season unexpectedly secured a playoff spot for Pittsburgh, the appreciative Steelers sent the Oilers leather briefcases as a thank-you present.
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