LeBeau welcomed back to Latrobe
LATROBE — This might be one of the few times an assistant coach received the loudest cheers of the day at an NFL training camp.
As the thousands of Steelers fans spotted defensive coordinator Dick LeBeau walking down a hill to practice on Monday afternoon, the ovation was as deafening as any Troy Polamalu or Ben Roethlisberger has received at Saint Vincent College.
LeBeau was gone for three days while being inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame, an honor he called the highlight of his 52-year career as a player and coach. It must have been — during that time, he can't recall missing a practice for any other reason.
He wasn't going to skip this one, either, even if couldn't make one of the day's two practices.
"I couldn't wait to get back over here," LeBeau said. "I told them (his players), 'I want you to do well, but not to do too good because I don't want you to know you can get by without me. You weren't going to keep me away from this training camp today."
He doesn't expect to miss any more practices, no matter how long he coaches. LeBeau isn't willing to concede he'll stop coaching soon, even though the former Lions star cornerback will turn 73 next month.
If there was a theme to his 17-minute induction speech Saturday, it was age doesn't matter as long as someone is passionate about what he does for a living. It's a message he plans to keep repeating.
"I think my life can be an example to some people, don't throw the towel in before you have to," LeBeau said. "Don't let your mind trick you into that. Age is a number. There will be plenty of time later on when it isn't. If I've got anything to say to people, it's look what happened to me when I became experienced."
Here's how experienced: During the Hall of Fame dinner, LeBeau realized there wasn't anyone in the room he hadn't played with or opposed as a player or coach.
"I recognize the uniqueness of that. Man, I know all of these guys," LeBeau said. "You look around and think, `I guess I have been around a while.' "
The players who most moved him were his own. The Steelers shut down camp for half a day to attend LeBeau's enshrinement en masse in Canton, Ohio, the first time Hall officials could recall an entire team attending.
Several players said they would have gone even if they had been fined for missing camp. Two of LeBeau's former linebackers, Joey Porter and Clark Haggans, flew across the country from the Arizona Cardinals' camp. Steelers chairman emeritus Dan Rooney, the U.S. ambassador to Ireland, flew back from Dublin to watch the acknowledged architect of the game-changing zone blitz defense be honored.
LeBeau promised himself he wouldn't cry during his speech after waiting so long to become a Hall of Famer — his playing career ended 38 years ago — but he almost did.
"I think I did a good job with the emotional part of it," he said. "I found out early on that I couldn't look over at the players, so I started looking out at people I didn't know. So we did OK."
