A new home
From LeBeau’s home in Cincinnati, the distance and driving time to Pittsburgh and Nashville are nearly identical. That’s one reason LeBeau listened when thenTitans head coach and LeBeau’s former offensive counterpart with the Steelers, Ken Whisenhunt, called in 2015 — he still could drive door to door in four hours flat. In his 80 years, the farthest LeBeau has lived from his home state of Ohio was Philadelphia, from 1973-75.
“Had that [Titans] opportunity not come along, I think he would’ve been comfortable closing the book on things,” said LeBeau’s youngest son, Brandon. “When that situation came up, it checked a lot of the boxes of things he’d be happy with. It wasn’t that hard of a decision.”
And in a way Nashville just made sense, a musical man landing in the Music City. LeBeau’s idea of unwinding after a long day at the practice facility is to flip on the Golf Channel and play guitar for an hour or two. When Brandon and his wife, Bonnie, drove down from Cincinnati last month with their newborn boy, Bennett, LeBeau happily strummed and sang for his grandson.
“Nashville is a good outlet for him,” agreed Bill Priatko, a former Steelers player who also was LeBeau’s rookieyear roommate at Cleveland Browns training camp in 1959. During LeBeau’s years with the Steelers, Priatko dropped by practice every Friday and had lunch with LeBeau and the other coaches. Now, they talk on the phone once every week, sometimes twice.
Priatko doesn’t sense any resentment between LeBeau and the Steelers.
“Dick’s not that way,” he said.
It was Priatko who orchestrated one of LeBeau’s finest hours on a golf course. Nearly a decade ago, Priatko alerted Doc Giffin, Palmer’s righthand man, to LeBeau’s golfing prowess. Palmer invited LeBeau and Whisenhunt to golf against him and Giffin. The coaches accepted and won. All these years later, Priatko said, LeBeau shoots below his age. Well below.
LeBeau once shot three holes in one in one week. He’s the best golfer on the coaches’ circuit, said Steelers assistant coach Joey Porter. Just the other day, Farrior heard from LeBeau that he’d recently shot one of his best scores. Farrior thinks it was a 62. That is only four shots off the PGA Tour record, but LeBeau’s legend has grown to a point where little is unbelievable.
“Shoot, he’s more than pretty good,” said Keith Butler, who replaced LeBeau as Steelers defensive coordinator, “I’ve probably played him more than 200 times and maybe won five.”