By Mark Curnutte
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Ex-Bengals coach Dick LeBeau. (AP photo) | ZOOM |

ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. - At age 65, having just lost his first head-coaching job, Dick LeBeau was ready to retire.

LeBeau talked to his older brother about the offers to be an assistant or consultant coming in from several NFL teams, and Bob LeBeau asked him one question:

" 'Dick,' I said, 'do you still feel like competing?' " Bob LeBeau said.

Not too long after that conversation, Dick LeBeau accepted the job of assistant head coach with the Buffalo Bills.

LeBeau spent 18 years with the Bengals, including most of the previous three as their head coach, and today he will face his former team at Ralph Wilson Stadium.

The Bills are glad to have LeBeau on their staff, and despite losing 21 of his final 25 games as Bengals coach, LeBeau remains well-liked and respected in Cincinnati.

LeBeau declined all interview requests this past week leading up to the game.

"It was hard on him, no doubt," Bob LeBeau said from his London, Ohio, home. "I talk to him almost every night, and never once has he said a bad word about Mike Brown or the Bengals."

Brown, the Bengals' president, fired LeBeau.

LeBeau was 63 - the oldest rookie head coach since the 1970 NFL-AFL merger - when Brown appointed him to replace Bruce Coslet three games into the 2000 season. The Bengals were 0-3 and had been outscored 74-7. LeBeau immediately restored order and after losing his first three games, won six of the next 12.

His 2001 Bengals opened with two consecutive victories and entered November at 4-3, the best record at the point for a Bengals team since 1990.

"He got so close to getting us over the hump," said linebacker Brian Simmons, drafted by LeBeau upon his return to the Bengals as defensive coordinator in the late 1990s. "It's a shame we didn't win for him. He did everything he could."

LeBeau's teams would win just four more games before his firing, and he would finish with a 12-33 record (.267), worst in franchise history.

"I got the job. I kept it for three years, and lost the job," LeBeau said in a statement released by the club after his firing. "In between, I worked as hard as I could."

LeBeau never blamed anyone, even though Brown would not let him overhaul the Bengals' strength and conditioning program. LeBeau also was rebuked in some personnel decisions, though - as a longtime Bengals insider - he didn't ask for changes Brown might have agreed to.

One mistake LeBeau might have made was retaining his entire staff after a 4-9 finish to the 2000 season. There were problems at quarterback, on special teams and in the defensive secondary.

But LeBeau was loyal to the people who stuck with him.

"Obviously, we as a staff just didn't get it done for him," Bengals running backs coach Jim Anderson, a team assistant since 1984.

Bills coach Gregg Williams is happy to have LeBeau around. LeBeau serves as an adviser on game days and has helped expand the defense with additional schemes.

"It's a real confident calmness about Dick," said Williams, 45, who noted that LeBeau has been in the NFL for exactly as many years as he has been alive. "His ego is one that can get along with anybody. He's a great teacher."

Bengals coach Marvin Lewis worked for four years with LeBeau with the Steelers. Lewis coached linebackers from 1992-95. LeBeau was defensive backs coach from 1992-94 and was hired ahead of Lewis by Steelers coach Bill Cowher as defensive coordinator.

LeBeau and Lewis - 21 years LeBeau's junior - shared an office.

Lewis also said he called LeBeau to discuss the Bengals job. Bob LeBeau said Lewis called his brother at least three times.

"Dick (was) very gracious about what he said about the Cincinnati Bengals," Lewis said. "Dick has been a great mentor of mine."

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E-mail mcurnutte@enquirer.com

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