It has been a decade since Dick LeBeau last drew up a game plan for the Pittsburgh Steelers, but when he looks at the current defense, he sees at least a pair of names familiar from his tenure as its coordinator.
“Cam,” LeBeau said proudly Sunday at Acrisure Stadium, “is definitely my guy, and here he is still playing.”
On the day he was inducted into the Steelers’ Hall of Honor, LeBeau was referencing defensive lineman Cameron Heyward. Heyward played his first four seasons with LeBeau as his coordinator.
Heyward joined the Steelers in 2011, some four years after a fiery, popular outside linebacker parted ways the team.
But while that player, Joey Porter, is no longer part of the team, Joey Porter Jr. is.
“I would have liked to have coached Joey’s son,” LeBeau said. “Off the top of my head there were probably four or five sons of my (former) players that I have coached, so it is not unusual. I didn’t get close to (Porter’s) son, but I almost made it.”
Now 87 years old, LeBeau has been out of football since 2017 when, at age 80, he capped 59 consecutive seasons in the NFL. In the Pro Football Hall of Fame because of his 14 seasons as a defensive back for the Detroit Lions, LeBeau arguably gained just as much notoriety for his coaching tenure in the league. And with all due respect to his three seasons as head coach of the Cincinnati Bengals, it was his 13 seasons over two tenures as Steelers defensive coordinator for which LeBeau is most remembered as a coach.
So it was appropriate that not only did LeBeau earn induction into the Steelers Hall of Honor but that he did so along with two players he coached: Casey Hampton and Jason Gildon.
Those three joined Willie Parker in the 2024 class that was feted during a ceremony at halftime of Sunday’s Steelers game against the Cleveland Browns.
“LeBeau is the best to ever do it at what he did,” said Hampton, the Steelers stout nose tackle from 2001-12. “To be able to go in with that guy, a Hall of Fame coach, is unbelievable.”
LeBeau holds reciprocal admiration for Hampton, with whom he helped the Steelers win Super Bowls XL and XLIII as well as play in the Super Bowl after the 2010 season. (LeBeau’s initial Steelers tenure included the 1995 AFC champion Steelers).
“You don’t build a house without a foundation,” LeBeau said in drawing an analogy to building the “Blitzburgh” defense. “Casey was the foundation.”
Hampton played two seasons with Heyward, who at 35 and in his 14th season is building a Hall of Fame resume of his own.
An Ohio State alum, LeBeau recalled falling in love with Heyward when he went to his alma mater to scout him as a draft prospect.
“You really hope you get and you actually do get him,” LeBeau said of the draft, “but to have your guys (in management) actually pick him that spot? That rarely happens.
“He’s probably having one of his very, very best seasons this year. I get excited every time I see him play.”
Porter Jr., meanwhile, is in his second season. He grew from a toddler to adolescence over the time Hampton was playing and forming a lifelong bond with the elder Porter.
“That’s crazy, man — my little nephew,” Hampton said of Porter Jr. “Seeing him and my son growing up together — they’re the same age — and watching them being small and little kids playing football and stuff like that, it’s crazy to see him as an adult playing for the Steelers. It’s like it came full circle.”
Gildon overlapped with Porter Sr. as a feared edge-rushing tandem. He was with the Steelers for 10 seasons, 1994-2003 and three times was named to the Pro Bowl and was a 2001 AP NFL All-Pro.
Parker’s time with the Steelers (2004-09) meant he was part of the organization with LeBeau and teammates with Hampton and the older Porter. Events such as Saturday night’s annual Hall of Honor dinner give players a chance to catch up and reminisce.
“We always talk about the locker room. We don’t really talk about the Super Bowls,” Parker said. “We don’t really talk about AFC championships. We talk about how we created a brotherhood. That’s pretty much what it is: a brotherhood to become great. And pretty much how we run the through the wall for our leaders, our coaches and everybody at the top of the organization.”