LeBeau’s long wait over as Hall of Fame awaits

Associated Press

PITTSBURGH

As the decades passed and Dick LeBeau was repeatedly left out of the Pro Football Hall of Fame, one of the best defensive players of his era began to believe he wouldn’t join the three other members of the Detroit Lions secondary who were already enshrined.

At least until a very persuasive group of lobbyists took up his cause. How’s this for a blue-ribbon panel to sway opinion: Troy Polamalu, James Harrison, James Farrior, Casey Hampton, Brett Keisel and Aaron Smith?

LeBeau’s 38-season career as an NFL head and assistant coach wasn’t supposed to factor into his candidacy — only his 14 playing seasons — but the key members of the LeBeau-coached defense that helped the Steelers win the Super Bowl twice in the last five seasons didn’t care. To them, a football hall of fame that excluded LeBeau wasn’t a true hall of fame.

So the players began wearing replica LeBeau No. 44 Lions jerseys to functions such as the Hall of Fame game in Canton, and to road games where they felt their influence might be felt. Perhaps their best argument came when, relying heavily on the innovative zone blitzes LeBeau developed during his days as a Bengals assistant, the Steelers defense put together one of the most dominating seasons in NFL history as Pittsburgh won the 2009 Super Bowl.

“Dick LeBeau,” Polamalu said, “is the greatest coach of all time.”

No surprise then that when LeBeau’s bust is unveiled Saturday in Canton, one month from his 73rd birthday, his Steelers players will attend en masse to celebrate.

“He told the young guys in minicamp, ‘I don’t know if you know, but I’m going into the Hall of Fame,’” Keisel said. “The next day he said the same thing again. I think he’s extremely excited and we all think it’s very much deserved. It’s finally happening for him.”

Excited is a word that’s rarely used in describing LeBeau, whose ability to remain calm, poised and focused has been evident since his days at Ohio State. While he excelled in football, his influences extended beyond the sport to fellow Buckeyes athletes such as basketball player Bobby Knight and golfers Jack Nicklaus and Tom Weiskopf. Knight and LeBeau spent hours talking about defensive theories and how they applied to multiple sports.

LeBeau was a fifth-round pick by the Browns in 1959.