Deebo & Joe - Part 1: Dick LeBeau on Hall of Fame Playing Career, Zone Blitz Scheme & Legacy

26:44And one of them guys, Orion and Troy, who was in the middle of the field, they were going to get to whatever was left to clean up. There wasn't much left because Aaron Smith and Brett Kiesel, they weren't blocking the line. It was fun to coach, man. because you just call a defense and get the hell out of the way and let them go, man.

27:09James Harrison:I love it, Debo. Everything that you're saying, Delce LeBoe, I can feel the love right now. I'm fortunate that I unfortunately didn't get to play for you, but just the way that you're talking now, the way that Debo speaks about you, the way that every player that ever played for you speaks about you, it just says everything, and I can feel it right now. Like, I wish I was able to play for you. But I'm going to say your coaching thing, amazing. I'm so impressed by your football career that you played. And I think that's what's also so relatable because you did 14 years. You played 171 consecutive games in a row.

27:44James Harrison:The longevity at corner. And that's the position I played. And 62 picks is not a game. I had 29 picks. Darrell Revis had 29 picks. Once you get to the number, like 60s, there's only 10 players in NFL history that have 60 career picks. So I played corner. I know how hard that is. When I'm looking at you, I'm like, how did you get 62 picks? And do you have, like, any of the most memorable ones? But the 62 career picks for me, I just – it baffles me, Coach. Hey, they weren't even throwing like that back then, Joe. 62. They throw three times a game, Coach. They didn't throw much more than 15 or 16 times a game back in those days.

28:26Everybody was two tight ends or hardly any wide receivers, one or two wide receivers in every formation. And it was more of a ground game. And you had to take advantage of the situations when you had teams where they had to throw. And that's where you're going to get your picks. And we had, I played on great defenses. I played for the Detroit Lions all 14 years of my career. and we really had good pressure. That's why I was a pressure coach. I saw the results. Yes. The only way you're going to affect that quarterback, you've got to make him say, ooh, this ain't practice now. You've got to make them feel it.

29:10This ain't what they were doing on the practice field when they were showing us what this defense was going to be. Yes. The first thing I would tell our guys is we're going to try to balance up this playing table and level their odds a little bit. Instead of us having to worry about where they're going all the time, they're going to have to worry about where we're going. Yes. I said, you have to spend some extra time learning some stuff, but we ain't going to, wherever we are, pre-snap ain't where we're going to be after they snap it. And sometimes we're going to be behind a step or two. I'm going to take the blame for that.

29:50I said, because I don't want the quarterback to know what we're doing. Read the mail. Because if you tell a quarterback what you're in, it's national football league, it's over, man. And that's the way we worked. But I was lucky playing that I always had a good front seven in front of us to get some pressure on the quarterback. but you gotta you gotta be a decent athlete to pick off yes don't short yourself now let me tell you something Joe if I'd have caught as many as I dropped hell I'd have went by night train in my third year playing people say well you must have great hands no well let me ask you this after about how many tackles you make 500 tackles so you know your hands are all beat up anyhow yes no you're right all that you would normally catch it ain't the same yep and you we were playing in uh chicago and we were playing in minnesota and we were playing outdoors there weren't any indoor stadiums and half of that season man your hands were freezing anyhow so uh but but you had the the the flip side of that was the receiver, he had to catch the same weather conditions and everything.

31:21James Harrison:Yeah, but he wouldn't have to tackle nobody all season long. He had a little bit easier. Of course, back then, y 'all could really hit him then. You played with a leather helmet. Did he even have any cushion in it, Coach? See, that's crazy. I see some of them helmets we wore. It was what they called a suspension helmet. And actually, it wouldn't have done any good for them to give me a helmet like they're wearing today anyhow, because I couldn't. You had to run, chase these guys all over the field, man. I wanted the lightest thing I could get. That's what I was. I got a little foam rubber and cut it for my thigh guards.

32:03I didn't wear no pads, man. Because you're a real DB. We don't want no pads, no weight. I like that. When artificial turf came in, it was like playing on cement with a little linoleum floor over it or something. But I loved it because you were never going to trip. You were never going to, because we spent half the day backpedaling, you know? Yes. And I said, how can you beat this, man? This is like covering some dude in your front room.

32:38James Harrison:I like that. That's why I know you're an athlete. You just wanted your footing. As long as your footing's good, you're straight. Oh, yeah. I played in high tops, man, most of my career. Why? Because with them low cuts, man, you could fly in them, but you get the least little bit of sprinkle on mud, you weren't going to stand up, man. Slipping. And you're going to be slipping, sliding. And like I say, if you're slipping, then sliding, peeping, then hiding. That wide receiver going to be sliding by you, man. Come on, Coach. I gave up a step or two so that I could always be there. If I couldn't get the ball, I could get him.

33:23Yes. Get him on the ground so that my James Harrisons could go sack your ass the next play.

33:33James Harrison:Coach, it's people today that say your defensive scheme, the way we did defense under your true fire zone, you know, blitz zone defense, that that wouldn't be successful against offensive schemes today. What do you have to say to that? Well, I'd say the more they spread it out, the better we liked it, man. Thin it out inside, and we're going to come. Now, you might hit us, but we're going to get DBs that can tackle. and when they get you on the ground you got to get us the next time and do I think I think this James and and uh no one could have a greater respect for the group that we had there uh collectively and uh with you guys hell we could have run straight four three cover three and they wouldn't have done too much moving that ball because it couldn't block you and i wrote that book uh just because i i knew the statistics that you guys put up was so unusual i was always a stat guy yes and i i recognized i said this is ridiculous what these guys are doing.

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37:53Dip into hot springs and dive into deserts. Climb a mountain or make your best effort. See thousands of stars in some of the darkest skies. Stake out haunted hotels. Can you make it to sunrise? There's always something new to see because we've got plenty of space to just be. Plan your trip at TravelNevada.com. Yeah. Our record that year was the toughest one ever up to that date, and that was 2008. And let me tell you something. And it's now 2026, and it's still the toughest schedule that any team went into preseason playing against teams that had one loss records. And when I said with this schedule that we had and we had a good offense, it could move the ball, you know, and that helps the defense, too.

38:50But it was phenomenal. I said, somebody's got to put a record of this down where people can read about this at some point in time. And that's what I did with that. And that's why I wrote that bit. But to do that, I got all 19 of those games and looked at them again. Because I was writing a book 15 years after when we did it. and nobody could do anything against you guys. I mean, it was fun to watch. You know, when you're working and going through it, you just focus on the game. The game's over right away. Good job, and we go to the next week, and you don't have time to sit there and just relook at play after play after play of a defense that is just flat everywhere at the same time.

39:49and they had the ability. Sure, they hit us some. They're going to hit any defense. It's a national football league, but we always got stronger as the game went on, and that was the mark to me of a great group of athletes. And they were special, and that's why these guys, they all stick together today. Anytime any of them is going anywhere near each other, they're going to get together.

40:16James Harrison:Hey, Coach, Coach, let me give people some insight. What Coach is talking about here is the book Legendary that Coach wrote. We got a picture of that, right, that we can put up? Yeah. Put a picture of the book of Legendary. Okay. Get this up there, D-Well. Make sure, okay, you guys check this book out. Like Coach said, it's about the 2008 Pittsburgh Steelers defense. Matter of fact, Coach, you go ahead and tell them the whole thing behind it. you got a better, you know, you got a better, you got a better Jill or spill of it than I do. You know, me and Troy just did the forwards. That's all. Well, I had categories.

40:59Like I told you, I was always a stat man. And I had 11 critical areas that a defense had to compete well in to play well. All I was ever looking for as a coach was a way to evaluate a defense's performance so that when I got up in front of you guys on Monday after the game, I was giving you a realistic statistic based on what was successful past, present, and probably in the future in the National Football League. And that was going to be what we had to reach those levels in order to be a successful defense. And you can't be a successful team without good offense, defense, and special teams. But I was focused on defense because that's what we were all, and that's the only time we were getting on the field.

41:53And I wanted to be able to evaluate our performance so that if I was an upset coach, that I could give them statistic reasons that this is why we didn't play well. Or if I was very happy with the performance, I wanted to be able to substantiate to them, this is why we did well and this is why we succeeded. And in doing that, I had a collection over, I coached for 45 years, so I had a lot of defensive records. and this particular group of people in that 2008 defense which ended up being the world champion team they were it was unheard of of my 11 key areas they led the league in nine no one's ever done that no one's ever going to do it again because you can't do it but they did it and And they did it against seasoned opponents that had the highest percentage of wins from the previous year.

43:05It wasn't like they were playing slapjacks. They were playing the cream of the NFL. So that, to me, warranted a book. And what I always said that someone should write a book about that year. and I didn't know I was going to coach until I was 80 years old, man. So when I got to be 80 and retired, I said, nobody ever wrote that book. I'm going to write it. And in doing so, I went back and looked at every play of every game and took as much time as I wanted to for each game. Actually, we split it up into 19 chapters there. Each chapter was a game. It's a good, easy read. It's a light read for a sports fan.

43:52It's a great read. It's a must read. Y 'all make sure y 'all go get that book. Y 'all don't want to miss it. The book's done well. And I didn't really care if it sold one book. I just wanted to tell the story of my guys, man, to be honest with you.

44:07James Harrison:Hey, Joe, remember I was telling you about the goal sheet? Yes. You never had one, right? I think it's a goal sheet. I don't think we had a goal sheet. Okay, so like he said, I thought it was 12 or 13 categories, whatever. I thought it was 11. It's 11 categories, all right? Yeah, well, there's 14, but there was 11 super key. I thought it was more. Okay, so it's 14 categories, right? You're right, James. So it's 14 categories, and these categories are basically like what's going to make you – what was it, Coach, like a top five defense or top ten defense? How was it? It was an average number from the top ten of the previous year.

44:44James Harrison:Right, so it was the average number. defense in each category. So if you had the average of that, then you obviously were going to do well. That sheet got thrown away in like 15, 16 because we couldn't even get four or five. We couldn't touch it. We couldn't touch it. Yeah, I think I remember that. It got thrown away. Yeah, they shouldn't have thrown it away. I know they shouldn't have. They shouldn't have thrown it on. You can't just throw it away because it's not giving you the results you want. These guys got to know you're doing bad. You're not doing what you need to do. You need to improve.

45:21James Harrison:And instead of making them improve, they said, hey, let's just get, let's stop looking at it. Yeah. And got rid of it. Well, that's the only reason that I carried them because to say, why did the team win that game? And if you're a team coach, which I like to think that I was because I wanted only team players is all I wanted to be working with. You know that you have to execute well offensively, defensively, and special teams. It's a group effort. But as a coach who was working with a group of men who only played defense, I wanted a way to evaluate what we were doing with the other defenses in the league.

46:08And I didn't do it to say, oh, well, we did this, but we still lost. And if the other guys would have done it.

46:17James Harrison:And we've had times where we've caught a lot of goals and we're sitting up there, like he said, with 11 goals and we lost the game. And we didn't, hey, and it's still our fault because our job is to stop them from scoring and they scored, period. I mean, look, nowhere else. That's what we would stand by. But at the same time as a coach, I didn't want to be ripping the hell out of my guys if statistically I've given them a goal and they're reaching most of them. And I felt that's the way I coached. And I said, look, we need to do better here, here and here. I spent more time talking about goals that we didn't make than the ones that we did.

46:59but I would go over those after every game, after every game. That was the first thing we did on Monday. And fortunately with that group of guys, we were usually smiling and laughing quite a bit, James. Yes, definitely, definitely.

47:16James Harrison:What was the average? If we got between 9 and 10 of the 14, it was 80-something percent win chance or something like that? What was it, Coach? well the the big figure on that percentage was if if you get uh uh score a point if you if the defense scores a touchdown you're going to win 90 of your games if you can score on defense and that's just that's what i call kind of uh unimportant stats but i'm a stat guy and i would I wouldn't always stress you with stuff like that. But what the big thing was, yards per carry, yards per throw, points, of course, is the number one thing. But if you're making up all the other stuff, there ain't going to be that many points.

48:11And I never – it didn't count – in my mind, I didn't count the points. If they recovered a fumble on our three-yard line, you got bonus points if you held them to three, but if they scored on that, the defense, I tried to evaluate everything from a defensive standpoint because that's what I was coaching. And that was the purpose of getting all those categories, and that was the purpose of writing that book because when you see the numbers right there on the page, first, first, first, first, first, and what happened after studying a lot of years of the stats, one team would be maybe up in two or three areas, but then they may be 14th or 15th in yards per catch allowed.

49:11percentage of passes completed that was always an important thing for me is how much were they getting every time they threw it and you had to figure in sacks into that and take the negative yards off of that and how how effective was your pass defense that game and it was a it was a relative number that fluctuated week to week but still there are 32 teams today and every every week the ones that aren't on by are putting those stats out there and you're going to have at the end of the year you're going to have what everybody in the league average what was good and what was not good and that's what I was looking for strictly when I could tell my guys hey we're below average in this situation we cannot win with that we got to get rid of that number or we're leading this thing keep that there but here's where we got to get better and that's that's all the purpose that i had for those things but when i got done the super critical ones i i'd say is 11.

50:22We were number one in nine of those categories. I mean, it'll never happen again.

50:29James Harrison:Yeah. You speak on me and Debo always talk about this, and I think it's like you giving them tangible results, tangible goals, like you against your contemporaries, against people in the league, and you were giving it to these guys, and you're giving them love because they had to go out and execute. You're not telling them nothing that's impossible to do. Some things, like you said, we might get hit on this play. That'll be fine. We can't guard everything. If you're trying to guard everything, you're guarding nothing. So being able to have a coach like knowing, okay, we're here. We might get hit on this one.

51:01James Harrison:Get him on the ground. We're going to the next play. Because you got things that you're already playing, like the, you called it the triple back and double back. Like y 'all are playing games with the other coaches that you already know. So I wish I could have played for you because everything you're saying right now, I feel like I'm sitting at a fire pit and I could just be listening to you talk because we speak the same way. Hey, don't you worry about it, Joe. You love the game. We play the same position. We play the same position. Like, you play – you're a cornerback. You have 62 picks, so now when I'm listening to you talking about how you approach the game, how you would set up the defenses, how you just think about ball, I'm like, I love that.

51:39James Harrison:That makes so much sense. Everything Debo says makes complete sense. I see why I will follow you through a brick wall because you get it. You understand what's going on, and the players – Thank you. That's very humbling, Joe, for you to say that. But I'll tell you what, the other thing that I know you would have enjoyed, I tried to coach the way I wanted to be coached. And I had enough experience of both sides of that ball. And I tried to teach from the film. And I just didn't say to a player, well, you got to do this. You got to get better at this. I would show him why what he's doing is putting half a step behind where he needs to be.

52:27And a half a step for a corner is a whole lot of yards when he gets down to where the ball's going to be completed. Oh, yeah. And I would – each guy is different. I didn't have one standard stance or one standard shift or plan or pivot or whatever. I tried to tailor everything that I taught around his physical capability, what I knew he could do best.

52:55James Harrison:That's what great coaches do. And the same thing was true with guys at James' position. I tried to call. I invented defenses that let them do what they could do the best. You ain't heard about Moto Casino? Moto has real Vegas slots. Any game you can find on the floor in Vegas, you can play it on Moto. I like my slots hot. Moto's free to play, like food stamps, in line at the grocery store, at a funeral, in traffic, keep your eyes on the road, hop on Moto Casino. Moto Casino got jackpots that are bigger than my belly. Moto, America's hottest free-to-play social casino. Download the Moto Casino app today.

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