Steelers' Dick LeBeau's Shocking Claim That He Was So Focused, He Missed Winning The Super Bowl

The Pittsburgh Steelers ended their Super Bowl win drought as a part of the capstone of the wild 2005 season. In Super Bowl XL, they defeated the Seattle Seahawks, 21-10, for the right to hoist the franchise's fifth Lombardi Trophy. A lot goes into a team winning the Super Bowl; it isn't the work of just one player or one coach, as former Steelers Defensive Coordinator, Dick LeBeau will be only too happy to tell you.

LeBeau felt so strongly about the teamwork that goes into football that he didn't keep sacks as an individual statistic, but rather as a team statistic. That 2005 season, the Steelers' defense was utterly dominant. They ranked in the top five for total and rush defense and were the first sixth seed to win a Super Bowl. 

In his new book, Legendary, LeBeau shares the incredible tale of his six decades in the NFL as a player and a coach. Before the 2005 season, he was starting to believe that winning a Super Bowl would elude him. Then, the following year, he watched that team come together and felt a spark of hope. 

Thanks to the stalwart defense and big plays from Hines Ward, Ben Roethlisberger, and Willie Parker, Pittsburgh got that lead over the Seahawks and kept it. However, LeBeau knew Seattle was an excellent team. The Steelers could not afford to get complacent as Matt Hasselbeck, the Seahawks quarterback, fought to get in the game before it was too late. LeBeau was so focused on Seattle's "last-gasp drive" that he wasn't paying attention to the clock. 

"They were throwing every down, and we were just trying to get the game over without any big plays. They got down to our 23-yard line, and Matt Hasselbeck threw an incomplete pass. My mind was just going a mile a minute, thinking, Fourth down coming up, what am I going to call? This is the Super Bowl! We've got to get them off the field here so there can't be any miracles. The guys started going crazy around me after Hasselbeck's incomplete pass. I said, 'What's wrong with you guys? They've got another down." They said, 'No, Coach, the game's over!" I looked up at the scoreboard and saw that it had been fourth down. I was so involved in that situation that I lost track of the downs."

LeBeau said he was so stunned that he sat on their bench long after the others had left the field. While that win might have been "one for the thumb" for Pittsburgh, it was the most significant moment of LeBeau's career. He said it felt so good to be part of the team that brought championship wins back to Pittsburgh for the first time since the 1970s.  

He ended up with two rings. LeBeau was still a member of the coaching staff when the Steelers returned to the Super Bowl three years later against the Arizona Cardinals. 

Steelers' Dick LeBeau Tamed One Of The NFL's Wildest Beasts

The Steel City has a long history of exceptional defenses, and those units are nearly always led in part by their linebackers. The teams of the early 2000s were no different. In that era, James Harrison frequently stood out as one of the league's most aggressive and punishing linebackers. 

During his time in and out of Pittsburgh, Harrison was frequently in trouble with the league, either fined or penalized. Frankly, he was lucky to make it to the point where he could be fined; he was cut by the Steelers three times before he settled down enough to make the team. Part of why he toned his attitude down was thanks to LeBeau. 

Are you surprised to hear that LeBeau lost track of time at the end of the game? Click to comment below. 

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