November 11, 2024 • 10 mins
Legend and longtime NFL Defensive Coordinator Dick LeBeau joins the show to talk all things NFL, as he discusses how the game has changed over the years, and his new book "Legendary" which discusses his Hall of Fame career as a player as well.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
He is going to be talking about obviously today's NFL,
but then Sean will get with him on some of
the legendary seasons he had as a coach for the blitzberg.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (00:11):
Remember, he's the architect, the guy I mean when you
talk about building your house and he's from top to
bottom of the Zone Blitz. To describe that before coach
gets back on, it's when you see a defensive lineman,
just give you who are a defensive end who's all
of a sudden they show Blitz, the defensive guy drops
back into the area and they're bringing somebody else. Yeah,
he is the architect for the Zone Blitz and one
(00:32):
of the very very best of all. Well, he's the
architect in the as good as we've ever had it
coaching it.
Speaker 1 (00:37):
He was enshrined to the Hall of Pro Football Hall
of Fame in twenty ten after his playing career. He's
going to be talking about his book Legendary.
Speaker 3 (00:43):
If we had his coach Lebo there, if we had
if we had Hall of Famers coach, did you hear
my question?
Speaker 4 (00:50):
It's Sean Salisburg. How you doing, sir, I'm doing well, Sean.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
I did not hear.
Speaker 4 (00:54):
Oh, Okay, yeah, it's good. Good to have you on.
Speaker 3 (00:57):
I said that, you know, as a guy who grew
up watching you play as a quarterback in the NFL,
playing against you in a broadcast career, then as a
player who's in the Hall of Fame, and as a
coordinator defensive coach, all the great things you've done, we
may not have had a better guy that belongs in
the Hall of Fame in both. And so my question was,
why don't we, with all the work you put in coach,
(01:18):
why don't we have assistant coaches in the Hall of Fame.
Speaker 4 (01:20):
Do you guys ever talk about that?
Speaker 2 (01:23):
No? No, I went in in two.
Speaker 4 (01:29):
Thousand and ten, right as a player.
Speaker 2 (01:31):
And yeah, and everything that I did was the statistics,
and everything was compiled in a fourteen year career from
fifty nine to seventy two. So I can remember going
through my life every now and then saying, well, my
(01:53):
statistics were as good as some of the guys that
are in there. But there's so many people that they
have great careers, and each year there's more of them
to retire who have great career with great statistics, and
they can only put so many in there. And I
never felt like I was the type of guy that
(02:15):
would be walking around saying, hey, man, I should be
in the Hall of Fame.
Speaker 4 (02:19):
You don't have to, We'll say that for it.
Speaker 2 (02:23):
Yeah, we'll see a pretty large half side to be
talking like that. So I've benefited from that. Actually, there
is an avenue now for everyone connected with the game
to get in there, as you've got owners coming in
now and general managers are making it and the Hall
of Fame has really rectified that dead end that they
(02:47):
had for assistant coaches, and there will be some get
in there, I'm sure.
Speaker 3 (02:52):
Yeah, absolutely, And if you weren't already in as a player,
you would be at the top of the list with
a lot of the Tom mooreries of the world and
the great assistant coach. I've been for this for two
decades because all the work you do, and the head
coach gets the credit and I get it, but all
the work you put in and we're going to get
to the zone blitz here and your book in a second. Coach,
you obviously have been following football and covering it and
(03:13):
talking about it and teaching it and playing it for
so many decades.
Speaker 4 (03:17):
How do you feel about today's game?
Speaker 3 (03:19):
Well, what do you give me one thing you like
and one thing you don't about the current state of football.
Speaker 2 (03:25):
Well, you know the old guys, they always say they
are back in my day. You know, I'm not one
of those kind of peopful. I played in my era,
and I coached in that era, and now it's somebody
else's turn. I enjoy today's game. I look forward to
(03:47):
each season. I watch as much football as I possibly can.
It's in my blood, of course, as I had fifty
nine consecutive seasons in the National Football League fourteen player
in forty five as a coach. So you're not going
to retire and say I'm done with that. It's going
to be with you for the rest of your life.
(04:08):
I think the game has ever bit as exciting and
entertaining as it was. But it's a very very different game.
And do I care for it as much as the
one that I played? Probably not all the guys that
I played with the same thing. But I think that's
(04:30):
just a normal situation of all of us who lived
in our era and now somebody else has turned. They
certainly are financially a success with the salaries that the
players are making, and I don't be grudge them at all,
and everything is going all the word en up with
(04:53):
trend as I say, if I were a king, as
they say, I would change a few way the games played.
But I was a defensive guy all the way.
Speaker 3 (05:05):
That's the voice of Dick lebou Hall of Famer Dick
lebow and in my mind, one of the great defensive
coordinators and coaches and teachers we've ever had in the
National Football League. As he joins us, sorry, coach, your
book legendary, which is going to be a phenomenal read.
And I was trying to explain before you came on
the you know some of the just the nuances of
his own blitz and nobody you are the architect. Nobody
(05:25):
taught it better and now it's used all over the league.
And as a quarterback, we didn't read defensive lineman drop
it into our coverage and we're trying to throw a
hotter a side adjustment. So how did this, well the
book come about? But how did your your thoughts on
the zone blitz that became Blitzberg and so special?
Speaker 4 (05:43):
How did that originate with you? Where did that start?
Speaker 2 (05:48):
Well? Because you know the able saying necessity is the
mother of invention, uh Bill Walsh and the West Coast
passing offense as quick release and Don Corriel who's throwing
all over Jim Jones with a run and shoot, and
(06:08):
these new concepts are throwing the ball all over the field,
not huddling half the time. They were blitzing the league,
and they were just a step ahead of the defense
and really of the history of the game as it
has evolved. In the system where the offense who gets
(06:28):
to call the play, they know who's carrying that, and
they know who's throwing it, who they're going to be
throwing it at, they know the snap count. The offense
has that Advantag's just just the way the game is
played and the defense have to figure out it's a
stimulus response game. So I think if you trace the
history of the league, you can see where the game
(06:49):
has evolved into more wide open, higher scoring, bigger yardage plays.
And they had the balls. I think was probably the
first guy to come up with the reads, and they
had come up with a way to keep the pressure
off the quarterback by breaking off routes and throwing to
empty space and leading the guy into the area that
(07:12):
created big plates for the offense. And in looking at
it and studying it and figuring out I was in
charge with the job of restricting the game of those
plays and really stopping that system. And it was an evolution.
(07:33):
I thought, well, what if when they broke off from
who was blitzing from us into an area that they
could lead the ball as far as they wanted to
and run away from the coverage, they were going to
be successful. So I looked at areas where I could
still blitz and overload the protection and have success with
(07:55):
pressure on the quarterback, but still not exposed. One guy
hap to be covering their best receiver all over the
field with no help. So it was an area of
defensing behind the pressure up on front. See Bobby Knight
and I were good friends, and Bobby Knight was great
basketball coach. He won a fantastic amount of basketball games.
(08:18):
We believed in pressure on the ball, and once you
believed that, you had to try to figure out the
best way to do it. And that's all that I
was doing, was looking for the safest, best way to
put pressure on the quarterback where he just doesn't go
out there and throw the ball all over the field
and score fifty points on you so that was the problem,
(08:41):
and I would say that sometimes we went down the
wrong road and searching for the solution. I can't tell
you how many diamond boards I went off into an
empty pool, my friend. But I did it on the
practice field, and by the time that I tried it
in the game, it was ready to go, and we
(09:01):
had the advantage to be in the first ones. And
so it was really dramatically successful in the early years
because the offenses hadn't seen it, and in much the
same as us with the new stuff that the offense
does with the motion in the ship and then sign
it counsel and whatever they do to confuse us. I
was just trying to level the playing field up a
(09:22):
little bit and let my guys attack and confuse the
offensive players.
Speaker 3 (09:27):
Well, nobody has done it better as a defensive coordinator
in the history of this game. The book is legendary.
It's Dick Lebow, Hall of Fame player and in my mind,
hall of fame coach. If we had him in there
as assistants. Nobody's done a better.
Speaker 4 (09:39):
Coach.
Speaker 3 (09:40):
I know you've got a busy schedule talking to a
lot of people. I can't thank you enough, and i'd
love to have you on again. Spend an hour talking
x's and o's. It's intriguing and if you want to
know about zone blitz and how it was applied, this
is the man architect, Dick Lebow, Hall of Famer coach.
Speaker 4 (09:53):
Thank you so much for your time.
Speaker 2 (09:55):
Thank you, Sean, it's been a blast.
Speaker 4 (09:58):
It's always honored to talk to you too, sir. Thank
you very much.
Speaker 3 (10:02):
Brian, he is uh that's his own blitz and when
you when you hear it all the time, that's where
it started. And it also helps that coach Lebou had
good players, but he put him in position to be success.
That's bad stuff. Yes, awesome to see in Pittsburgh's winning again.
He is going to be talking about obviously today's NFL,
but then Sean will get with him on some of
the legendary seasons he had as a coach for the blitzberg.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (00:11):
Remember, he's the architect, the guy I mean when you
talk about building your house and he's from top to
bottom of the Zone Blitz. To describe that before coach
gets back on, it's when you see a defensive lineman,
just give you who are a defensive end who's all
of a sudden they show Blitz, the defensive guy drops
back into the area and they're bringing somebody else. Yeah,
he is the architect for the Zone Blitz and one
(00:32):
of the very very best of all. Well, he's the
architect in the as good as we've ever had it
coaching it.
Speaker 1 (00:37):
He was enshrined to the Hall of Pro Football Hall
of Fame in twenty ten after his playing career. He's
going to be talking about his book Legendary.
Speaker 3 (00:43):
If we had his coach Lebo there, if we had
if we had Hall of Famers coach, did you hear
my question?
Speaker 4 (00:50):
It's Sean Salisburg. How you doing, sir, I'm doing well, Sean.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
I did not hear.
Speaker 4 (00:54):
Oh, Okay, yeah, it's good. Good to have you on.
Speaker 3 (00:57):
I said that, you know, as a guy who grew
up watching you play as a quarterback in the NFL,
playing against you in a broadcast career, then as a
player who's in the Hall of Fame, and as a
coordinator defensive coach, all the great things you've done, we
may not have had a better guy that belongs in
the Hall of Fame in both. And so my question was,
why don't we, with all the work you put in coach,
(01:18):
why don't we have assistant coaches in the Hall of Fame.
Speaker 4 (01:20):
Do you guys ever talk about that?
Speaker 2 (01:23):
No? No, I went in in two.
Speaker 4 (01:29):
Thousand and ten, right as a player.
Speaker 2 (01:31):
And yeah, and everything that I did was the statistics,
and everything was compiled in a fourteen year career from
fifty nine to seventy two. So I can remember going
through my life every now and then saying, well, my
(01:53):
statistics were as good as some of the guys that
are in there. But there's so many people that they
have great careers, and each year there's more of them
to retire who have great career with great statistics, and
they can only put so many in there. And I
never felt like I was the type of guy that
(02:15):
would be walking around saying, hey, man, I should be
in the Hall of Fame.
Speaker 4 (02:19):
You don't have to, We'll say that for it.
Speaker 2 (02:23):
Yeah, we'll see a pretty large half side to be
talking like that. So I've benefited from that. Actually, there
is an avenue now for everyone connected with the game
to get in there, as you've got owners coming in
now and general managers are making it and the Hall
of Fame has really rectified that dead end that they
(02:47):
had for assistant coaches, and there will be some get
in there, I'm sure.
Speaker 3 (02:52):
Yeah, absolutely, And if you weren't already in as a player,
you would be at the top of the list with
a lot of the Tom mooreries of the world and
the great assistant coach. I've been for this for two
decades because all the work you do, and the head
coach gets the credit and I get it, but all
the work you put in and we're going to get
to the zone blitz here and your book in a second. Coach,
you obviously have been following football and covering it and
(03:13):
talking about it and teaching it and playing it for
so many decades.
Speaker 4 (03:17):
How do you feel about today's game?
Speaker 3 (03:19):
Well, what do you give me one thing you like
and one thing you don't about the current state of football.
Speaker 2 (03:25):
Well, you know the old guys, they always say they
are back in my day. You know, I'm not one
of those kind of peopful. I played in my era,
and I coached in that era, and now it's somebody
else's turn. I enjoy today's game. I look forward to
(03:47):
each season. I watch as much football as I possibly can.
It's in my blood, of course, as I had fifty
nine consecutive seasons in the National Football League fourteen player
in forty five as a coach. So you're not going
to retire and say I'm done with that. It's going
to be with you for the rest of your life.
(04:08):
I think the game has ever bit as exciting and
entertaining as it was. But it's a very very different game.
And do I care for it as much as the
one that I played? Probably not all the guys that
I played with the same thing. But I think that's
(04:30):
just a normal situation of all of us who lived
in our era and now somebody else has turned. They
certainly are financially a success with the salaries that the
players are making, and I don't be grudge them at all,
and everything is going all the word en up with
(04:53):
trend as I say, if I were a king, as
they say, I would change a few way the games played.
But I was a defensive guy all the way.
Speaker 3 (05:05):
That's the voice of Dick lebou Hall of Famer Dick
lebow and in my mind, one of the great defensive
coordinators and coaches and teachers we've ever had in the
National Football League. As he joins us, sorry, coach, your
book legendary, which is going to be a phenomenal read.
And I was trying to explain before you came on
the you know some of the just the nuances of
his own blitz and nobody you are the architect. Nobody
(05:25):
taught it better and now it's used all over the league.
And as a quarterback, we didn't read defensive lineman drop
it into our coverage and we're trying to throw a
hotter a side adjustment. So how did this, well the
book come about? But how did your your thoughts on
the zone blitz that became Blitzberg and so special?
Speaker 4 (05:43):
How did that originate with you? Where did that start?
Speaker 2 (05:48):
Well? Because you know the able saying necessity is the
mother of invention, uh Bill Walsh and the West Coast
passing offense as quick release and Don Corriel who's throwing
all over Jim Jones with a run and shoot, and
(06:08):
these new concepts are throwing the ball all over the field,
not huddling half the time. They were blitzing the league,
and they were just a step ahead of the defense
and really of the history of the game as it
has evolved. In the system where the offense who gets
(06:28):
to call the play, they know who's carrying that, and
they know who's throwing it, who they're going to be
throwing it at, they know the snap count. The offense
has that Advantag's just just the way the game is
played and the defense have to figure out it's a
stimulus response game. So I think if you trace the
history of the league, you can see where the game
(06:49):
has evolved into more wide open, higher scoring, bigger yardage plays.
And they had the balls. I think was probably the
first guy to come up with the reads, and they
had come up with a way to keep the pressure
off the quarterback by breaking off routes and throwing to
empty space and leading the guy into the area that
(07:12):
created big plates for the offense. And in looking at
it and studying it and figuring out I was in
charge with the job of restricting the game of those
plays and really stopping that system. And it was an evolution.
(07:33):
I thought, well, what if when they broke off from
who was blitzing from us into an area that they
could lead the ball as far as they wanted to
and run away from the coverage, they were going to
be successful. So I looked at areas where I could
still blitz and overload the protection and have success with
(07:55):
pressure on the quarterback, but still not exposed. One guy
hap to be covering their best receiver all over the
field with no help. So it was an area of
defensing behind the pressure up on front. See Bobby Knight
and I were good friends, and Bobby Knight was great
basketball coach. He won a fantastic amount of basketball games.
(08:18):
We believed in pressure on the ball, and once you
believed that, you had to try to figure out the
best way to do it. And that's all that I
was doing, was looking for the safest, best way to
put pressure on the quarterback where he just doesn't go
out there and throw the ball all over the field
and score fifty points on you so that was the problem,
(08:41):
and I would say that sometimes we went down the
wrong road and searching for the solution. I can't tell
you how many diamond boards I went off into an
empty pool, my friend. But I did it on the
practice field, and by the time that I tried it
in the game, it was ready to go, and we
(09:01):
had the advantage to be in the first ones. And
so it was really dramatically successful in the early years
because the offenses hadn't seen it, and in much the
same as us with the new stuff that the offense
does with the motion in the ship and then sign
it counsel and whatever they do to confuse us. I
was just trying to level the playing field up a
(09:22):
little bit and let my guys attack and confuse the
offensive players.
Speaker 3 (09:27):
Well, nobody has done it better as a defensive coordinator
in the history of this game. The book is legendary.
It's Dick Lebow, Hall of Fame player and in my mind,
hall of fame coach. If we had him in there
as assistants. Nobody's done a better.
Speaker 4 (09:39):
Coach.
Speaker 3 (09:40):
I know you've got a busy schedule talking to a
lot of people. I can't thank you enough, and i'd
love to have you on again. Spend an hour talking
x's and o's. It's intriguing and if you want to
know about zone blitz and how it was applied, this
is the man architect, Dick Lebow, Hall of Famer coach.
Speaker 4 (09:53):
Thank you so much for your time.
Speaker 2 (09:55):
Thank you, Sean, it's been a blast.
Speaker 4 (09:58):
It's always honored to talk to you too, sir. Thank
you very much.
Speaker 3 (10:02):
Brian, he is uh that's his own blitz and when
you when you hear it all the time, that's where
it started. And it also helps that coach Lebou had
good players, but he put him in position to be success.
That's bad stuff. Yes, awesome to see in Pittsburgh's winning again.
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