One of the casualties of all these losses by the Browns in the expansion era is the loss of the rivalry with the Pittsburgh Steelers.

It will get stoked up once again if and when the Browns get good again, but as for Sunday’s regular-season finale between the two teams at Heinz Field, it will have no special feeling on either sideline.

The Browns may as well play the Los Angeles Chargers again.

Or the Houston Texans.

Or the Seattle Seahawks.

Or the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Or the Atlanta Falcons.

Or the Jacksonville Jaguars.

Or the Carolina Panthers.

Or any other team with which they have no rivalry.

And that’s a sad statement.

At one time, when the original Browns franchise was still in Cleveland, Browns-Steelers was one of the great rivalries in the NFL. Every game, every year in ether city meant something – actually, a lot of something.

Doug Dieken, who has been with the Browns as a left tackle and then as the color analyst on their radio broadcasts since 1971 – that’s a whopping 46 years, including the three years (1996-98) that the team was held in trust by the NFL during which he served tirelessly as a goodwill ambassador to keep the flame alive, so to speak – made Steelers hating a cottage industry. His dislike – not just on the field, but off it as well, really — of Pittsburgh defensive end Dwight White was legendary.

Asked before a game with the Steelers one year what he thought about White, Dieken stunned a group of reporters by saying, “My parents taught me that if I couldn’t say something nice about someone, then I shouldn’t say anything at all. So no comment.”

Then there’s Browns defensive end Joe “Turkey” Jones, who made like a farmer and tried to plant Pittsburgh quarterback Terry Bradshaw head-first in a game at Cleveland in 1976.

And the stories go on and on and on – from both teams.

But on Sunday, the main story is that, in regards to any rivalry with the Steelers, there is no story.