Pittsburgh Steelers defensive coordinator and former Detroit Lions cornerback Dick LeBeau was nominated by the Senior committee as a finalist for the Hall of Fame. This has been a long time coming, granted he is not guaranteed to make it, but he should have been in the Hall about 10 years ago. During his 14 year career LeBeau started a record 172 straight games at cornerback for the Lions and when he retired he was third all-time in career interceptions(he now sit 7th all-time) with 62 picks.
Dick Lebeau is in his 36th year as a coach and he got his start as a special teams coach for the Philadelphia Eagles a year after he retired as a player. He has twice been a head coach once with the Cincinnati Bengals and the other time was with the Buffalo Bills. Dick first joined Pittsburgh in 1992 as a defensive backs coach and was eventually promoted to defensive coordinator for one year before he left to take over the same role with the Bengals. LeBeau is in his second stint with the Pittsburgh Steelers and he has masterminded 2 Super Bowl winning defenses and over his career with the Steelers he has helped them win 7 division titles and 3 trips to the Super Bowl. Dick's contributions to the game have been numerous and he revolutionized the way defenses attack the offense. He is known for his creative blitz packages and his on the fly adjustments that have won his teams many games.
His players revere him and they treat him like he is a father figure to many of them. I met him this offseason and he was very nice and he went out of his way to make me feel welcome at Steelers training camp. He is an example of nice guys finishing first and he is a rare commodity, someone who loves his job and is at the top of his profession. Congratulations Dick LeBeau, lets just hope the voters finally get it right. Also here is a link for an interview he did with steelers.com talking about the honor of just being nominated for the Hall of Fame.
GO STEELERS!
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