Dick LeBeau's helmet
Dick LeBeau wore this helmet during his 14-year career with the Detroit Lions. LeBeau earned a starting role with the team in his rookie season of 1959 and embarked on a consecutive start streak that spanned 171 games.
Posted: Friday September 7, 2012
Peter King
Ageless LeBeau preps Steelers defense for old foe Manning
After a Hall of Fame career as an NFL cornerback, Dick LeBeau has crafted some of the most innovative defenses in NFL history.
Charles LeClaire -- US PRESSWIRE
Sunday is Dick LeBeau's 75th birthday. After you pick your jaw up off the floor -- the Steelers' Hall of Fame defensive coordinator could pass for 57, easy -- consider the gift the football gods have given him: On the day he turns three-quarters of a century, he gets to playcall Pittsburgh's opener. Against Peyton Manning. "That's not a real appetizing part of this birthday, trying to defend one of the greatest quarterbacks of all time," LeBeau said from his Steelers office Wednesday night. "But honestly, playing the game Sunday soothes the fact that it's my 75th a little bit."
LeBeau occupies a unique and honored position in the game. He made the Hall of Fame off his career as a cornerback; he had 62 interceptions in a 13-year career with the Detroit Lions. Sometimes, when he sees a young Steeler exulting after an interception, he sidles up to him and reminds him he had 62 of them. "It's called 'establishing credibility,' " LeBeau said. He moved on to a coaching career, and is considered the father of the Zone Blitz, the offense-confounding blitz package that has defensive linemen dropping into coverage and corners and linebackers rushing the passer.
Never has he faced a player more confounding than Manning. In seven meetings against Manning (three as a coach with Cincinnati, one with Buffalo and three with Pittsburgh), LeBeau's teams are 1-6. Manning hasn't pulverized LeBeau's defenses, averaging 26 points per game, but he's won. And from what LeBeau's seen on tape from this summer's preseason efforts, Manning's going to do a lot more winning this year. "I don't see much difference in him, quite honestly," LeBeau said. "I had a chance to play Bobby Layne, Y.A. Tittle and Norm Van Brocklin late in their careers, and the reason they stayed so dangerous as players is because they knew how to play the position. I believe the quarterback position is more how you manage the game anyway. And I saw that with Peyton in the preseason: He did everything he needed to do to show he still can play the position at a high level."
LeBeau's right. Against the Niners two weeks ago, Manning made all the throws you need to make to win. LeBeau knows he'll need to mix up the coverages and the rushes -- the way he's done in their last two meetings, holding Manning to 42 points in eight quarters.
Now for how LeBeau stays young. He runs before practices, on the field. He golfs a lot in the offseason. He does crossword puzzles and mental games. He hangs around the youngest players on his unit, to learn the latest in youth-think."It's a young man's game, but in my heart, I still think I qualify," he said. "I'm surrounded by young people, which helps. I honestly don't think about it much, but I have made a promise to myself: If I ever feel myself slipping, I'll get out. I haven't felt it yet. ''No one's pushing him out the door. At 74, LeBeau orchestrated the league's No. 1 defense, both in yards and points allowed. Keep doing those crosswords, coach.
In pass-happy NFL times, Dick LeBeau finds the answers
December 9, 2012
By Gerry Dulac / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Joe Sargent/Getty Images
Defensive coordinator Dick Lebeau has found a way to put the Steelers on track to again lead the NFL in pass defense.
Even when more lenient rules made it easier for them to defend the pass, the Steelers and members of their Steel Curtain defense never managed to have the same success stopping the pass as Dick LeBeau's secondary.
At a time when the National Football League is littered with pass-happy quarterbacks and 1,000-yard receivers are as common as 300-pound linemen, LeBeau has managed to use all of his Hall of Fame experience to concoct a scheme that has slowed some of the league's top throwing arms and grounded air traffic like a northeastern snowstorm.
And that has impressed a number of former Steelers who know all about shutting down the other team, whether on the ground or through the air.
"I think it's amazing they can do as well as they do in the secondary," said former linebacker Andy Russell. "Today's rules have sort of outlawed pass coverage. The way the Steelers of the '70s played pass coverage isn't even remotely the way they play today. Today, you can't even touch these guys."
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Dick LeBeau generates chills with annual reciting of Christmas poem
Published Friday, Dec 21, 2012
Gerry Dulac Sporting News
PITTSBURGH?Sometime Saturday night, when the Steelers are finished with their team meeting at the hotel in advance of their Sunday game against the Bengals, the players will gather around defensive coordinator Dick LeBeau and listen to a speech from their Hall of Fame assistant coach.
But this is no ordinary narrative designed to inspire the players or break down the weaknesses of the opponent.
Dick LeBeau will recite ??Twas the Night Before Christmas? to the Steelers on Saturday night, speaking every line and verse from memory. (AP Photo)
LeBeau will stand in front of the players and recite ??Twas the Night Before Christmas,? never reading from the book and touching every line and verse from memory. It is just another wondrous talent for the man who had 62 career interceptions as an NFL cornerback and is considered one of the greatest defensive coordinators in league history.
?It?s great,? wide receiver Mike Wallace said. ?It takes you back to when you?re 9 years old. You feel like a kid again. I love it. I love it every year when he does it. It never gets old.?
LeBeau?s recital has become a Steelers tradition at the team hotel on the Saturday night before Christmas. And it is a moment all the players anticipate and remember.
?I enjoy it every year,? said Pro Bowl safety Troy Polamalu. ?I especially like to see the young guys? faces, and I especially like the offense to experience it because they get to see how special the coach is we have on defense.?
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Dick LeBeau's next task: Build a Steelers defense to stop the option
Jim Corbett, USA TODAY Sports
July 30, 2013
LATROBE, Pa. ? The godfather of the zone blitz stands at midfield, giving his Pittsburgh Steelers defense a one-word, pre-snap call whenever full-team training camp drills commence.
Then, Dick LeBeau, 75 years young with a Hall-of-Fame reservoir of expertise siphoned across five decades as a ball-hawking cornerback and coach, walks to the sideline to observe how his signal is dispersed.
He is using camp to construct a speed bump in the regular season against the rising wave of turbo-charged, no-huddle, read-option offenses.
"You're going to see these up-tempo offenses more and more across the league this season," LeBeau told USA TODAY Sports. "So very early during our practice sessions, the offense will go a lot of no-huddle attack so our guys get comfortable with not only their up-tempo conditioning, but they get comfortable with the mechanics of getting the call relayed when you can't get huddled up.
"You need to practice that because the up-tempo is another tool offenses have now to pressure defenses."
The Steelers open Sept. 8 against the Tennessee Titans. And guess what? Tennessee's Jake Locker, who was a dual-threat quarterback at the University of Washington, might be asked to showcase those talents in his second season as a full-time NFL starter. Pittsburgh will likely be the first team to fully witness Locker's unleashed mobility in tandem with the talents of fleet Titans tailback Chris Johnson on options runs.
LeBeau will be ready as zone-blitz force meets zone-read finesse.
"Coach LeBeau is here refining his game for what the fast-break style of 2013 football is," Steelers free safety Ryan Clark says. "There's nothing coach LeBeau hasn't seen.
"He's just trying to find ways to shorten our terminology, get us our calls quickly so we can just play football. ... In the past, we've been kind of scrambling with making calls. He's been fine-tuning that to where we control how his calls are disseminated through just one word."
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