PITTSBURGH — We could begin this story 21 years ago at the Westin Hotel in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., where Hurricane Jeanne caused a power outage the night before Ben Roethlisberger's first start, or we could begin at the Sheraton Hotel in New York City 42 years ago, where the Steelers famously passed on hometown quarterback Dan Marino in the draft.

But we'll start in a different hotel — the Miami Beach one where Don Shula, of all people, helped to change the Steelers' fortunes forever on the morning of Jan. 13, 1969.

Shula was hurting after Joe Namath's New York Jets had stunned his Baltimore Colts the day before in Super Bowl III, one of the most famous football games ever played. But that did not prevent him from making an in-person recommendation to Marianne Noll, wife of Shula's esteemed defensive coordinator Chuck Noll.

It was clear by then that Shula was going to lose Noll. The Bills, Patriots and Steelers all had eyes on him. Shula wanted the best for his coach and didn't think the Patriots or Bills would be best. So while Noll was interviewing with Steelers executive Dan Rooney, Shula went and knocked on Marianne's hotel-room door to offer his opinion on the Rooney family.

"Don Shula came into the room," Marianne Noll recalled nine years ago, a day after Rooney passed away at age 84. "And he said, 'If Chuck gets that offer, take it. Take it. They're good people.' "

Who knows how much that influenced the proceedings? What we do know is this: Shula and Noll went on to coach the two most memorable teams of the 1970s — Shula's Miami Dolphins and Noll's dynastic Steelers.

They met with a trip to the Super Bowl at stake in 1972, the week after the Immaculate Reception, and if not for the Dolphins losing to the Oakland Raiders on Clarence Davis' miraculous "Sea of Hands" catch, they would have met for the same stakes two years later.

And so it is with Steelers-Dolphins, as the teams prepare for an important Monday night matchup at Acrisure Stadium. They do not meet often (29 times in all) yet share a notable history, one that has produced some unforgettable games and indelible moments away from the game.

I'm sure there are some I did not include, including the rare sight of a modern-day Steelers playoff win when Bud Dupree nearly broke Dolphins quarterback Matt Moore in half in 2016, but these spring to mind first ...

LARRY SEIPLE'S FAKE PUNT

(AFC championship game, Dec. 31, 1972, Three Rivers Stadium).

A week after the Immaculate Reception, the Dolphins produced an iconic play of their own, one that helped stretch their record to 16-0 on the way to the only perfect season of the Super Bowl era. The game was played in Pittsburgh because the NFL chose the site of conference title games based on a yearly divisional rotation back then, rather than by record.

In Miami, they simply call it "The Fake." The Steelers led 7-0 in the second quarter when Seiple, the punter, took off and ran 37 yards to set up a game-tying touchdown catch by Larry Csonka. The teams went to the half tied at 7. The Dolphins went on to win 21-7, and then beat Washington in the Super Bowl to finish 17-0.

In other words, there might not be a perfect season if "The Fake" never happens.

"We had position, momentum, everything, when that happened," Noll said afterward. "That changed the game."

The loss was quickly forgotten when the devastating news of Roberto Clemente's death rocked Pittsburgh later that evening.

BEN'S FIRST START

(Sept. 26, 2004, Pro Player Stadium)

Steelers guard Alan Faneca was asked if it was "exciting" to see Roethlisberger get his chance playing for injured starter Tommy Maddox.

"Exciting?" Faneca replied. "No, it's not exciting. Do you want to go work with some little young kid who's just out of college?"

This story began the day before the game, when Hurricane Jeanne hit land. The power went out at the Fort Lauderdale Westin, but that did not prevent the Steelers from going through a walk-through in the ballroom.

"We gathered together with flashlights and still went through our normal preparation," recalls then-nose tackle Chris Hoke. "Even though we had no power, no light, we still had a game to play. Coach Cowher knew how to keep us focused despite the distractions. He was the master motivator."

Players gathered later to share stories by flashlight. The game was moved from 1 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. because of the storm, but the field quickly became a swimming pool on a baseball infield at Pro Player Stadium.

Roethlisberger's first pass was picked off, but he threw the clinching touchdown to Hines Ward at the pylon and defeated Dave Wannstedt's Dolphins, 13-3. The Steelers would not lose again until the playoffs, finishing 15-1.

That wasn't the only crazy Steelers-Dolphins weather game ...

MUDDY NIGHT FOOTBALL

(Nov. 26, 2007, Heinz Field)

A rainstorm and a re-sodding-gone-bad led to unplayable conditions for a "Monday Night Football" game. But they played nonetheless, and thank goodness for that. Without it, we never would have seen Miami's Brandon Fields punt a ball that stuck in the mud like a javelin.

"I remember feeling like I was playing in a swamp," Hoke says.

Can you guess the ESPN announcing trio that night?

Pat yourself on the back if you said Mike Tirico, Ron Jaworski and Tony Kornheiser. They all laughed like crazy when the punt stuck. The whole country did.

"You could take out that 9 iron, go straight for the pin, drop it down," Kornheiser said. "Unbelievable!"

That could describe the entire night. The Steelers won 3-0 on a Jeff Reed field goal, making for one of only two 3-0 NFL games in the 21st century thus far (the other was the Vikings beating the Raiders in 2023).

STEELERS PASS ON MARINO

(April 26, 1983, Sheraton Hotel, New York City)

The Steelers had the 21st pick, with Marino still on the board and previous quarterback disasters no doubt fresh in plenty of minds. They'd traded Len Dawson and cut Johnny Unitas decades earlier, after all. And they would pass on Marino, taking defensive lineman Gabe Rivera instead.

Thirty years later, Dan Rooney told WTAE what happened:

"I was walking out into the press room when [national reporter and Pittsburgh native] John Clayton was there. He said, 'I got a great idea what you should do.' He said, 'You know Marino's still there. You should take Marino and trade [quarterback] Cliff Stoudt for a second pick. You'll get the same player you were gonna take.' I said, 'That's really a good idea.' I went into the room and gave them the idea. They said, 'Who'd you talk to?' And I was so dumb I said John Clayton. That immediately was the end of that. That would have been a great pick."

Clayton, you see, was not a favorite at Steelers headquarters. He'd busted them in 1978 for breaking NFL rules with a full-contact, padded workout during a no-contact period. The NFL docked the Steelers a third-round pick.

All of which made the following especially unpleasant ...

MARINO SHREDS STEELERS IN AFC TITLE GAME

(Jan. 6, 1985, Orange Bowl)

The Steelers, long past their dynastic days, surprisingly put themselves within a game of the Super Bowl. But they were no match for Marino, who shredded them for 421 yards and four touchdowns.

It was somewhat of a full-circle moment for Shula and his old defensive coordinator, 16 years after Shula recommended Noll for the Steelers job. As recalled by former Post-Gazette columnist Ron Cook, Noll came to midfield to shake Shula's hand after Marino's performance and greeted him with a single word:

"Wow!"

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