蘑菇视频

Jul 13, 2024 By Rob Burchianti 5 min read

Dick LeBeau spent a combined 59 years in the NFL as a player and a coach and was voted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2010 based on his stellar playing career with the Detroit Lions.

Pittsburgh Steelers fans would argue LeBeau should be enshrined as a coach as well after he helped the team make three Super Bowl appearances as a defensive coordinator, including wins in 2005 and 2008.

LeBeau always touted Pittsburgh’s 2008 defense as the best he’s ever coached and that was the inspiration for the book “Legendary: The 2008 Pittsburgh Steelers Defense, The Zone Blitz, and My Six Decades In The NFL,” written by LeBeau with George Von Benko and Scott Brown.

LeBeau is not only regarded as one of the top defensive coordinators of all time but also as an outstanding person loved by his players.

“I never ever saw any sports coach so revered by all his players,” said Von Benko, who discussed the book which was released to the public on Tuesday with an official book launch slated for Sunday from 2 to 3:30 p.m. at the Western Pennsylvania Sports Museum, located inside the Heinz History Center in Pittsburgh. The program will be held at the Mueller Center on the fifth floor.

LeBeau, Von Benko and Brown will all be present as well as several former Steelers, including Ike Taylor, Brett Keisel, Deshea Townsend and Chris Hoke. Admission is $20 for non-members and $10 for History Center members and includes full access to the museum and the center.

The book’s main focus is the 2008 defense with chapters on each game that season arranged chronologically. Dispersed throughout the book are sidebars on LeBeau throughout his football career.

The main title of the book comes from a quote by Mike Tomlin when the defense went on the field for the final time in Super Bowl XLIII against the Arizona Cardinals, and is mentioned early in the book.

The last part of the quote reads: “If you make this one last stop right now, you will become a legendary defense.”

The Steelers defense, which had allowed an uncharacteristic long touchdown pass by Kurt Warner to Larry Fitzgerald that gave the Cardinals the lead before Ben Roethlisberger’s famous game-winning touchdown pass to Santonio Holmes, did make that last stop to clinch Pittsburgh’s sixth Super Bowl trophy.

“Dick never felt that defense got the credit it deserved,” Von Benko said on why LeBeau chose to make the book mainly on the 2008 team. “It was a dominating defense that led the league in every statistical category except one and it was second in that one.”

Published by Triumph Books, Von Benko was pleased at how the final product turned out.

“We were very interested in what they were going to do with the layout and it just turned out fantastic,” Von Benko said. “I think it’s an outstanding book. Dick and I were both very pleased at how it turned out.”

Von Benko wrote many of the sidebars in the book on several interesting topics such as:

– The respect that Roethlisber and LeBeau had for each other and how LeBeau strongly pushed for the Steelers to draft Roethlisberger. The two also developed a tradition of holding hands with each other for the pregame prayer.

– LeBeau’s time at Ohio State, which resulted in a Buckeyes national championship under Woody Hayes. At that time Ohio State’s basketball team included Jerry Lucas, John Havlicek and Bobby Knight (with Knight noting “Dick was a heck of a basketball player”) and a golf team that included Jack Nicklaus and Tom Weiskopf.

– LeBeau’s unexpected meeting with George C. Scott following a golf outing dinner, not knowing at the time Scott was from Detroit and a huge Lions fan.

– LeBeau established a tradition of reciting “The Night Before Christmas” for the team during the holiday season, which had a lasting impact on many of the players and their families.

The breakdown on each individual game in each chapter is fascinating with a great deal of insight into many key plays or moments. Troy Polamalu is mentioned throughout, many times on what an important “chess piece” he was on the defense.

The beginning of the book features a host of player quotes about LeBeau and an intriguing breakdown of James Harrison’s famous 100-yard interception return for a touchdown in the Super Bowl against the Cardinals, which some regard as the greatest play in Super Bowl history.

There’s an in-depth look at the final moments of that Super Bowl win over Arizona as well, depicting the roller-coaster mental ride of LeBeau and his defensive players.

LeBeau, now 86 years old, shows in the book how much he cares for every one of his players by providing quotes along with a photo of every player from that 2008 defense.

If you’re a Steelers fan this is a must-have book, plain and simple.

Von Benko marveled at LeBeau’s longevity in the game with 14 years as a player and 45 as a coach.

“For someone to be a player and coach that long in the NFL with that kind of impact, it’ll never happen again,” Von Benko said.

The book, with a listed price of $28, can be purchased online at several websites, including Amazon, Ebay and Triumph Books, and at select local bookstores.