It was a long time coming. And no one was more deserving. A player since 1959, a coach since 1973, it took until the 2005 season for Dick LeBeau to win a Super Bowl. It was worth the wait.
LeBeau made a guest appearance on Bryant McFadden and Patrick Peterson’s All Things Covered podcast that aired Monday morning to discuss the feeling of finally being part of a Super Bowl-winning season and all the emotions that came with it.
Super Bowl XL in 2005 was hardly LeBeau’s first chance to win the Super Bowl. He had been to three “Big Games” prior but lost them all, leaving him wondering if he’d ever get back.
“I had gone twice in Cincinnati and both of them [were] close games and lost,” LeBeau told McFadden. “Each year that clock ticks and I wasn’t a young coach then. And then our first time in Pittsburgh that we got there, we had that game with the Dallas Cowboys. Dallas gained [254] yards in total offense. And I don’t know for sure about records, but that’s gotta be the lowest amount of yards a winner ever made in that game. And we lost.”
LeBeau’s assumption was nearly correct. At the time, the Cowboys’ offensive yardage output was the second-fewest by a Super Bowl winner, only ahead of the perfect 1972 Miami Dolphins, who mustered only 253 yards in their 14-7 win over Washington, just one yard less than what the Cowboys did to Pittsburgh. Of course, Dallas got its points and big plays off two interceptions from DB Larry Brown, still one of the lowest moments in Steelers’ history. Since, the 2000 Baltimore Ravens and the 2015 Denver Broncos have produced fewer yards in Super Bowl wins.
After falling in the AFC title game the year prior to New England, Pittsburgh got to the Super Bowl in 2005. The team went on a tremendous run thanks to a great defense and big plays by Ben Roethlisberger, knocking off the Cincinnati Bengals, upsetting the Indianapolis Colts, and defeating the Denver Broncos despite being the 6th seed. They went on to contain RB Shaun Alexander and Seattle’s offense in the Super Bowl, winning 21-10.
As players and coaches celebrated on the field after the game was officially won, LeBeau found himself a quiet corner of the field and took it all in.
“I walked over to the bench, I sat down on the bench. It was nobody within 50 yards of me. And the confetti was raining down, man,” he said. “And I was staring at that scoreboard. And they kept saying, Pittsburgh [21], Seattle 10. And I kept saying, ‘Man, that’s right. That’s what it says. So this ain’t a dream.'”
It wasn’t a dream. It was Pittsburgh’s fifth Lombardi Trophy, the elusive “one for the thumb” and the franchise’s first championship since its 1970s Steel Curtain dynasty. In 2005, the Steelers finished with the third-ranked defense, holding opposing offenses to just 16.1 points per game. In the playoffs, they allowed just 15.5 across their four games.
For LeBeau, seeing the scoreboard declare Pittsburgh as world champs was a sight almost impossible to believe. And it meant he’d forever be a Super Bowl champ.
“I sat there for four or five minutes and just stared at that scoreboard. It was like I zoned out,” he said. “I was in a completely different medium, man. I said, ‘We finally did it and I ain’t gonna get shut out.'”
After 30 years of coaching, he finally had his trophy. He’d add another to the trophy case in 2008 when the Steelers won their second of the decade with arguably an even better defense, one LeBeau thinks is better than the ’05 group, by beating the Arizona Cardinals 27-23 in one of the best Super Bowls of all-time.
Catch the whole interview with LeBeau before. There’s tons of great stories and it’s well worth your time.
