Steelers revere LeBeau, the coach they call Dad

PITTSBURGH — NFL players make headlines for cursing a coach. Criticizing a coach. Calling out a coach. Demanding that a coach be fired.

Loving a coach? Now that’s a new one—except in Pittsburgh, where Steelers players have long talked of their respect, admiration and, yes, love for defensive coordinator Dick LeBeau. Here’s another one: Some of them call the former star defensive back Dad.

“We love coach LeBeau,” Pro Bowl safety Troy Polamalu said. “I don’t think there’s anything we wouldn’t do for him.”

During a time when Chad Ocho Cinco sits out a game for getting into a dispute with a coach, and Terrell Owens makes a career out of coach-baiting, LeBeau’s relationship with his players is more like that represented in the hero-worshipping Chip Hilton and John R. Tunis football novels of a half-century ago.

And this seems so schmaltzy, it’s hard to believe it occurs in the current-day NFL. One of his players’ favorite days every season comes when LeBeau recites from memory “‘Twas the Night Before Christmas,” as he did last week.

His players are so devoted to LeBeau, they purchased $300 throwback LeBeau jerseys to wear to the Hall of Fame game in Canton last year to lobby voters for his enshrinement.

“I just have a lot of respect for the man,” defensive end Aaron Smith said. “What he’s done as a player and what he’s done as a coach speaks volumes for him, the way he conducts himself and carries himself and treats people.”

The way he coaches, too.

At age 71, and in a remarkable 50th NFL season—14 as a standout defensive back and 36 as a coach—LeBeau is enjoying one of his most satisfying seasons.

The Steelers’ defense is one of the NFL’s most dominant in years, allowing the fewest yards for the second successive season, plus the fewest yards passing and least number of points. The Steelers missed by fewer than 60 yards rushing of becoming the first defense since the 1970 NFL merger to lead the league in the top four defensive categories.

LeBeau is best known for popularizing the zone blitzes that swept the NFL when he was coaching Pittsburgh’s Blitzburgh defense during the 1990s. But playing for the former Bengals head coach requires much more than relying on an innovative scheme.

LeBeau’s defenses are known for maximizing talent, being well-disciplined and fundamentally sound. Some plays are risky, but each has a safety valve, too. As players such as Greg Lloyd, James Farrior, James Harrison, Joey Porter, Casey Hampton, Smith and Polamalu have proven, one can make a career out of being a LeBeau disciple.

As Harrison set the Steelers’ single-season sack record of 16 while winning a second team MVP award in as many seasons, he credited LeBeau for turning a player who wasn’t drafted out of Kent State into a two-time Pro Bowl linebacker.

“Everything I do is because of him,” Harrison said. “If he doesn’t call that defense that puts me in a position to make plays, I wouldn’t be talking to you now.”

To further understand LeBeau’s ability to communicate, motivate and innovate, consider this. It has been 15 years since LeBeau’s zone blitzes first became popular, a lifetime in a sport where today’s gimmick fast becomes yesterday’s news, yet his defenses remain as fresh and as confusing as they did then.

The Steelers played one of the NFL’s toughest schedules, yet they allowed only one team to gain 300 yards, held half of their 16 opponents to 10 points or below, and didn’t permit a passer to throw for 300 yards or a running back to gain 100 yards.

Asked why this defense is so good, safety Ryan Clark said, “Coach LeBeau’s calls. I think he’s really been smart. He calls a defense that always allows someone to be over the top in some capacity.”

And who says a coach can’t adapt as he gets older?

LeBeau knew the Steelers needed to generate a better pass rush after getting only 36 sacks last season. So he tweaked his defense to get more pressure from the front three and linebackers Harrison, LaMarr Woodley and Lawrence Timmons. The Steelers finished second in the league with 51 sacks, four off the club record.

“I think in the earlier days sometimes we would just completely dominate the game because people were not familiar with it (the zone blitz),” said LeBeau, who has been an assistant with five teams during his extended career. “I don’t think those situations evolve too often any more, but you can’t put on a video—be it college, high school or professional—and not see the zone blitz being evoked. It’s sound and it’s a safe way to pressure … it has evolved, but we’re still an attack defense.”

Pittsburgh has been home to some of the NFL’s best defenses—remember the Steel Curtain? Mean Joe Greene? Jack Lambert?—and statistically, this defense ranks with them.

“They look a lot like Baltimore (in 2000) when they killed everybody and won the Super Bowl,” Cowboys coach Wade Phillips said.

Much like predecessor Bill Cowher, who twice hired LeBeau to run his defense, Steelers coach Mike Tomlin is a former NFL defensive coordinator who spends considerable time working on defense. Yet his players say Tomlin allows LeBeau more freedom to run the show than Cowher did.

“Dick is the guy,” Tomlin said. “But Dick will tell you, those calls are great because they’re being executed at a high level, guys like James Harrison and Co. making plays. They make the calls happen.”

LeBeau hasn’t said yet if he will return next season at age 72, but maybe he doesn’t need to. His players believe there are only two things left for them to accomplish to bring the proper credit to LeBeau:

1) Win the Super Bowl for the second time in four seasons. The Steelers have this weekend off before playing a divisional playoff game Jan. 11. 2) Gain Hall of Fame recognition for a man who ranked fourth in the NFL record book with 62 interceptions when he retired in 1972, and remains in the top eight, and has been one of the sport’s defensive innovators.

“I don’t see any reason why he shouldn’t be in the Hall of Fame,” Smith said.

His loyal players lined up to hug him during an on-field ceremony Nov. 20 to honor LeBeau for his 50 seasons. Some had tears in their eyes, as did LeBeau.

“Anybody would love coaching these guys,” LeBeau said.

It’s obvious the feeling is mutual.

No. 3 Pitt muscles past No. 11 Georgetown, 70-54

WASHINGTON — DeJuan Blair knew that he was not the main focus of the two dozen or so NBA scouts or the national television audience. The featured attraction was supposed to be college basketball’s latest flavor-of-the-month, Georgetown freshman Greg Monroe.

In the second half, however, it was Blair who was thumping his chest while chants of “Let’s Go, Pitt!” came from the thousands of upper-deck fans who made the trip to the nation’s capital. Blair and the No. 3 Panthers were muscling their way to a 70-54 win Saturday over the No. 11 Hoyas, ending Georgetown’s 29-game home winning streak.

“I played with something on my back saying, ‘They’re picking this young cat against me, and I’m not going to take it,”’ Blair said. “I was always an underdog throughout my whole life. I think I showed a lot of people.”

Blair had 20 points and 17 rebounds, and the Panthers (14-0, 2-0 Big East) never trailed as they dominated the Hoyas on the boards, in the paint and with their depth.

Rebounds: 46-21. Points in the paint: 48-22. Bench scoring: 14-2. Needless to say, those questions about the Panthers’ early schedule—this was their first game against a ranked team—are now firmly put to rest.

“They were saying, ‘Who did Pitt play?”’ Blair said. “We came into Georgetown and showed them what we can do. They can’t say nothing now.”

Tyrell Biggs and Sam Young added 14 points apiece for the Panthers, who shot 53 percent in the second half in a rematch of the last two Big East tournament championship games. Levance Fields had eight turnovers and no assists, raising his ratio to an astounding 91-to-19 on the season.

DaJuan Summers finished with 22 points for Georgetown, single-handedly keeping the Hoyas close until a 17-4 Pittsburgh run midway through the second half.

Monroe added a quiet 15 for the Hoyas (10-2, 1-1), who were dealt a sobering reality check five days after their road upset of No. 2 Connecticut. Monroe’s 4-inch height advantage meant little against Blair’s grit and determination.

“He’s real strong,” Monroe said. “He’s definitely knows how to use his strength, his width.”

Predictably, Georgetown coach John Thompson III downplayed the magnitude of the loss in much the same manner in which he refused to buy into the euphoria over the UConn win. After all, there’s a road game at No. 7 Notre Dame on Monday.

“We have no turnaround,” Thompson said. “We leave tomorrow morning for South Bend. You can’t dwell on that too long. We’re a very good team, but we just had a very difficult stretch from that 14-minute mark where they did a good job of executing and we didn’t.”

Monroe set the tone in both halves. He won the opening tip, scored the game’s first points with a hook shot, then picked off a pass and made the score 4-0 with a layup. In the second half, he scored Pittsburgh’s first seven points, including a hook shot against a triple team after losing the ball and recovering it in the paint. Immediately after that play, he blocked Monroe’s shot at the other end.

In the decisive run later in the second half, Blair—who played only eight minutes against Rutgers because of foul trouble—dunked home a feed from Fields with 7:47 remaining to make the score 55-44, the first double-digit lead of the game.

“We joked with him the last couple of days that he was going to be well-rested,” Pitt coach Jamie Dixon said. “He had a lot of legs, and he was ready to go. “