When the Pittsburgh Steelers visited the White House last year after winning the Super Bowl, Dick LeBeau got a surprise when he was recognized by President Barack Obama during his speech.
After that, LeBeau thought of his late father, Richard. Said LeBeau: “I looked to the sky and said, ‘Sarge, we’ve come a long way from the cornfields of Ohio.’ “
On Saturday, the 72-year-old LeBeau will reach his ultimate destination when he is enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton.
He has spent 52 seasons in the NFL as a player and coach, including 18 with the Bengals as secondary coach, defensive coordinator and head coach. He is the fifth player or coach with ties to the organization to enter the Hall of Fame, joining Paul Brown, Anthony Munoz, Charlie Joiner and Bill Walsh.
LeBeau, who grew up in London, Ohio, and played in college for Ohio State, still has ties to Cincinnati. He spends part of the offseason here and his son, Brandon, lives in Montgomery.
Although many know him as a revered defensive coordinator who invented the zone blitz, it is LeBeau’s playing credentials as a cornerback that got him to Canton.
After being cut by Brown from the Cleveland Browns as a rookie in 1959, LeBeau went to the Detroit Lions and played 14 seasons. His 62 interceptions are tied for eighth on the NFL’s career list and his 171 consecutive starts are a record for cornerbacks.
“I was aware that you could defend my numbers, but let’s face it – one-tenth of one percent (of NFL players) get in,” LeBeau said of making the Hall of Fame.
Over the past five years there was a campaign to get LeBeau enshrined. Members of the Steelers’ defense wore LeBeau’s No. 44 Lions jersey to Hall of Fame functions and when they played in Detroit last year. At last year’s induction ceremony, former Pittsburgh defensive back Rod Woodson used part of his speech to campaign for LeBeau.
In August last year, LeBeau was one of two finalists nominated by the Hall of Fame’s Seniors Committee. He and running back Floyd Little were added to a list of 15 modern-era candidates, and LeBeau was among those chosen at a selection meeting on Feb. 6.
“I know for the last several years players have been talking about him being in,” said Woodson, who played for LeBeau in Pittsburgh and is serving as a coaching intern with the Bengals during training camp. “I’m glad they got it right by putting him in as a player.”
Coaching Cincinnati
LeBeau was hired by Paul Brown in 1980 as a secondary coach on Forrest Gregg’s Bengals staff after coaching stints with Philadelphia and Green Bay.
“It was a thrill. My dream came true,” LeBeau said. “I spent most of my coaching career in Cincinnati and I don’t regret one day of it.”
In his second season with the Bengals, they advanced to the Super Bowl for the first time.They lost to a San Francisco 49ers team coached by Walsh.
“You talk and preach to your players that they can be successful,” LeBeau said. “On that team that year, that was the first time at some point where you went in and talked about fundamentals and where those faces were looking back at you and saying, ‘They’re pretty good.’ “
The Brown-LeBeau friendship grew, with the Bengals founder often taking LeBeau to dinner with friends because LeBeau could provide backing to some of Brown’s stories from his Cleveland days. They also were both competitive golfers.
With his induction, LeBeau will join a list of Hall of Famers who were cut or traded by Brown and thrived elsewhere. Among them are Willie Davis, Doug Atkins and Henry Jordan.
Once during a speech by Brown in LeBeau’s hometown, a fan asked Brown how he could have cut LeBeau. “Oh, I’ve cut better players than LeBeau,” Brown said.
The zone blitz
One of LeBeau’s favorite phrases is “necessity is the mother of invention.”
When the West Coast offense – the strategy of using short passes that was developed by Walsh while he was a Bengals assistant from 1968-75 – took over the NFL in the early 1980s, LeBeau needed to come up with a way for his defense to get safe pressure on the quarterback.
At that time, defenses relied on man-to-man coverage that was exploited in the short passing game when teams blitzed because there were open zones. LeBeau’s scheme was different: Linebackers and safeties would blitz but linemen would drop into coverage, and quarterbacks would not know where the pressure was coming from since it could originate anywhere on the field.
In a 1983 preseason game, LeBeau tried an early version of the zone blitz. When cornerback Ken Riley intercepted the pass and ran it back for a touchdown for the Bengals, LeBeau knew he had something.
But without Sam Wyche, who became the Bengals’ head coach in 1984, LeBeau’s idea might not have come to fruition.
“Sam was pretty innovative and open-minded,” LeBeau said. “There probably would be a lot of coaches, if you came to them with the idea of dropping defensive linemen and rushing corners, asking, ‘Have you gone crazy?’ But Sam said, ‘Let’s take a look.’ “
In 1988, the Bengals rode the zone-blitz defense to their second Super Bowl, only to lose again to Walsh and the 49ers.
The head man
After Wyche was fired at the end of the 1991 season, LeBeau left the Bengals to coach Pittsburgh for five seasons, first as secondary coach and then as defensive coordinator. He returned to Cincinnati as defensive coordinator in 1997 and was promoted to head coach three games into the 2000 season when Bruce Coslet resigned. His first win in charge of the team came in Week 8 against Denver at Paul Brown Stadium, when Corey Dillon ran for a then-NFL record of 278 yards.
The Bengals finish that year 4-12 but were 4-9 under LeBeau, including two wins in their final four games. In 2001 there was a two-win improvement, but things fell apart in 2002 as LeBeau guided the Bengals to their worst record in franchise history, 2-14. A day after that season ended, LeBeau was fired. His 12-33 record is good for a winning percentage of .267, one point worse than Dave Shula’s.
“Our record wasn’t very good, but I think we had made some positive strides and had pieces in place,” LeBeau said. “I thought we needed to do some things, but we just ran out of time.”
Despite the way it ended in Cincinnati, LeBeau said he and Bengals president Mike Brown remain friends. Before Marvin Lewis took the Bengals’ head coaching job in 2003, he called LeBeau and got a good recommendation.
“I told him the Browns were very good people to work for,” LeBeau said. “Very knowledgeable and that you could win because we had been to two Super Bowls.”
After a year with the Buffalo Bills as assistant head coach, LeBeau returned to Pittsburgh. In his six seasons as defensive coordinator, the Steelers have won two Super Bowls.
“My experience in Pittsburgh professionally is one the greatest things that ever happened to me,” LeBeau said.
Entering the Hall
LeBeau will take part in all of the Hall of Fame festivities this weekend, beginning with today’s Nitschke Luncheon during which he will meet the returning Hall of Famers. There’s also the Enshrinees Dinner tonight, when he will receive the coveted gold jacket given to each Hall of Famer.
On Saturday night, after being presented by his brother, Bob, LeBeau will try to sum up his 52 years in the NFL in 10 minutes.
“I’m not sure my feet have touched the ground yet,” LeBeau said. “… The one thing is the joy that I see in my friends’ and family’s eyes. The joy that this has brought to us. To see my brother, my son. There’s enough sadness in this world – it sure is nice when something good happens.
“Once all of us are gone, somebody … from London, Ohio, will be in there (the Hall of Fame) with his great grandson and will say, ‘A guy from our hometown is there.’ ”
About the Author Jim McMillen
The Editor & Chief, the brains so to say, behind Pittsburgh Blitz. Jim is a rabid sports fan who just loves his Stillers, Pens and Buccos. Feel free to contact us at steelerguy26[@]yahoo.com if you have any questions or comments or would like to join our staff and write for Pittsburgh Blitz.
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