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LLT
07-04-2010, 03:29 AM
Around the NFL: Steelers' LeBeau remembers his Ohio roots
By Steve Doerschuk
CantonRep.com staff writer

It’s hard to make Dick LeBeau nervous, but this does. He has been a big man behind the scenes of the bright lights, coordinating Pittsburgh defenses that have won two Super Bowls in the last five years.

In a month, it will be time to step into the bright lights at center stage of a Pro Football Hall of Fame induction that includes him.

“I don’t think my feet have touched the ground since I got the call,” said LeBeau, months after he was elected the day before the Super Bowl.

He still laughs about the tense wait on that Saturday in February.

“I made up my mind I wasn’t going to watch it on TV,” he said. “I stayed as busy as I could to take my mind off it.

“I got a call from a close friend from Colorado. I answered the phone, and another call was coming in. I tell him, ‘Jim, I can’t talk. It might be the Hall of Fame.’ He says, ‘You dummy, it’s all over the screen. You made it.’ ”

LeBeau will be in Canton during a hectic time for the Steelers with training camp heating up. The Steelers understand the significance of the honor, though. They are owned by the Rooney family, which has two members in the Hall. LeBeau will take part in all Hall of Fame activities normally associated with an incoming class. He will arrive in Canton on Aug. 5 and stay through the Hall of Fame Game on Aug. 8. The induction ceremony — which also includes Emmitt Smith, Jerry Rice, Russ Grimm, Floyd Little, Rickey Jackson and John Randle — is Aug. 7.

LeBeau is recognized these days as a Steelers mastermind, and rightfully so, since he has been defensive coordinator in their last three Super Bowl appearances. But ...

“I have a lot of Ohio fan in me,” he said. “I’m very much Ohio State-conscious. Jim (Tressel) is a very good friend. I’m an admirer.”

He grew up in London, where his older brother still lives. Bob LeBeau is a retired history teacher who never stopped playing the saxophone in popular bands attracting many gigs in Central Ohio.

“London hasn’t changed that much,” LeBeau said. “It may be a cliché, but it’s still a small midwestern town with traditional values.

“Football was the big sport at London. We have a good baseball tradition, and, at times, we turned out a good basketball team. We were outdoors every day, playing whatever sport was in season.

“London is where I was taught that honesty is the best policy, and your name is your most prized possession.”

He played offense and defense on Ohio State’s 1957 national championship team. He gets a laugh out of the fact his current team’s quarterback, Ben Roethlisberger, passed for 4,328 yards last year, in relation to the fact Ohio State completed two passes, both to Massillon’s Jim Houston, in a win over Oregon in the Rose Bowl.

Some of the philosophy that has kept LeBeau at the top of the coaching game comes from another Ohio boy, Orrville’s Bobby Knight.

Whereas LeBeau played for a national championship football team at Ohio State, Knight was a member of the Buckeyes’ last team to win a national basketball championship.

They met as fellow Ohio State students. Some of Knight’s basketball principles are part of the defensive philosophy LeBeau uses at Pittsburgh. LeBeau is known as the father of the zone blitz, but he didn’t get that from playing college football.

“My coordinator when I played for the Lions,” LeBeau said, “was Jimmy ‘The Hatchet’ David. He was with championship teams with the Lions in the 1950s. He played at 177 pounds and was tough as nails. He believed in blitzing from every kind of angle. That was my first exposure to it.

“I don’t remember that we had a blitz at Ohio State. I’m sure we had one, but I don’t recall it.

“I’ve had conversations with Bobby Knight about defense over the years. His philosophy was to always keep a lot of pressure on the basketball.”

LeBeau grew up as a big Browns fan and is old enough to remember most of the 10-year period in which Paul Brown’s teams played in consecutive league championship games. He was drafted by Brown in 1957 and cut the same year. LeBeau then began a career in Detroit covering 14 years.

“It was always easy to get up for that game at Municipal Stadium,” he said. “The Browns always had a better record than us, but we had a tremendous record against Cleveland.”

LeBeau began his second stint as Pittsburgh’s defensive coordinator in 2004. He beat the Browns 11 straight times before losing at Cleveland in December.

http://www.cantonrep.com/sports/x1849219541/Around-the-NFL-Steelers-LeBeau-remembers-his-Ohio-roots

ALLD
07-04-2010, 07:16 AM
Another one of our own is recognized as the best in the NFL. It never becomes routine, only the normal result from lots of hard work and dedication.

LLT
07-04-2010, 11:56 AM
Seriously...I havent been this happy to see someone enter the HOF in a long time. Lebeau's nomination is waaaay overdue and now its time for people to get their heads out of their butts and get Donnie Shell inducted.

ALLD
07-04-2010, 12:34 PM
Seriously...I havent been this happy to see someone enter the HOF in a long time. Lebeau's nomination is waaaay overdue and now its time for people to get their heads out of their butts and get Donnie Shell inducted.

He really got in by being the inventor of the "Zone Blitz".

steelpride12
07-04-2010, 12:54 PM
I always say this. It's about time Lebeau makes the HOF. It's been overdue for several years and one man who trule imvented the Zone blitz and revolutionized defense overall.

Devilsdancefloor
07-04-2010, 01:01 PM
Seriously...I havent been this happy to see someone enter the HOF in a long time. Lebeau's nomination is waaaay overdue and now its time for people to get their heads out of their butts and get Donnie Shell inducted.

LC Greenwood needs to be there as well, but they have their collective heads up there butts!
But i am extremely happy for coach dad!