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Steelers defensive coordinator Dick LeBeau gives guidance during practice Wednesday, Aug. 6.
Chaz Palla/Tribune-Review

LeBeau enters 50th NFL season
By Joe Starkey
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Sunday, August 10, 2008

Steelers linebacker James Farrior just shook his head and laughed when somebody told him it was defensive coordinator Dick LeBeau's 50th year in the NFL.

"I can't imagine myself doin' nothin' for 50 years," Farrior said. "That's a milestone right there."

LeBeau, who turns 71 on Sept. 9, isn't the type to celebrate such milestones. When a reporter broached the topic, saying, "This is year 50, eh?" LeBeau smiled and said, "That's the rumor."

But forget 50 years. LeBeau estimates it has been 60 years since he spent a late summer doing anything but training for another football season. That would have been 1948 -- the year the NFL prohibited plastic helmets and equipped referees with whistles instead of horns.

The competition is what drives LeBeau, as one might expect of a guy who played under Woody Hayes at Ohio State and befriended a Buckeyes basketball player named Bob Knight.

"There's no age limit on competing," LeBeau said. "There are puzzles to be worked out, questions to be answered. That's still an intriguing part of the business to me."

LeBeau doesn't look a day over 50 and carries himself with a calmness rarely seen in football coaches -- or certain basketball coaches we've seen over the years -- yet commands the utmost respect.

LeBeau enters 50th NFL season - Pittsburgh Tribune-Review