If you know anything about the Pittsburgh Steelers, you know it's a team that prides itself on defense.
And in the mid-1990s, that defense had a moniker that still can be heard today, based off their ability to create havoc with the zone blitz.
'Blitzburgh.'
The nickname originated 30 years ago when former radio color analyst Myron Cope asked callers to his talk show to come up with a nickname for the defense. While Cope opted for a different one, Ed Bouchette, who covered the Steelers for the Pittsburgh Post Gazette, liked the name 'Blitzburgh,' and threw the name in a story he wrote.
And 'Blitzburgh' was born.
'A Steelers Story: Birth of Blitzburgh' will premiere on Thursday, Dec. 12 at 7 p.m. on steelers.com and the Steelers YouTube channel. It is narrated by Bill Hillgrove, the long-time Steelers radio play-by-play broadcaster, who was in his first season calling the games in 1994, the first year of Blitzburgh. 'A Steelers Story' looks to provide in-depth profiles on Steelers players past and present as well as other unique Steelers stories.
The architect of the zone blitz was Dick LeBeau, who was the defensive backs coach in 1994 when the nickname was born, spending the next two seasons as defensive coordinator, before returning to the Steelers in 2004 to serve as defensive coordinator for 11 more seasons.
"It's a zone area where you would blitz a guy that normally doesn't blitz and make the quarterback figure out what's going on," explained LeBeau of the zone blitz. "And if you could have enough variety of that, there aren't enough hours in the day that a quarterback can figure all of them out."
LeBeau said the original idea of the zone blitz was born when he was a Hall of Fame cornerback for the Detroit Lions, and he and teammate Dick 'Night Train' Lane, another Hall of Famer, were talking in the huddle during a game.
"We're getting in a huddle and Night Train, says, 'Dick, cover my guy on this play. I'm going to blitz. I say Night Train, what are you talking about? You can't blitz man. Blitz has got to be coordinated, and everybody's got to know what everybody's doing, and you got to do your part.' Besides that, I've got a guy I got to cover.
"He said, 'It don't matter, the quarterback has not looked at me all day, he isn't even gonna look over here, I'll sack him before anything can happen.' I said Night Train, you're a crazy man."
The Steelers were able to make it work under Coach Bill Cowher, who lived, ate and breathed defense.
"It really was kind of a collaboration between myself and Dom Capers and Dick LeBeau. And Marvin Lewis was a young linebacker coach at the time," said Cowher. "It was really a great mix of people, and I think it was a lot of creative thinking.
"We wanted to do different ways of trying to break down protections. And to try to put pressure on the quarterback while at the same time not being locked into man-to-man. So, the fire zone is basically a zone defense, but still bringing five people."
'A Steelers Story: Birth of Blitzburgh' takes you inside every aspect of how the Steelers made it work, with interviews from some of the key players, including Dick LeBeau, Bill Cowher, Greg Lloyd, Rod Woodson, Chad Brown and Levon Kirkland.
Don't miss, 'A Steelers Story: Birth of Blitzburgh,' which will premiere on Thursday, Dec. 12 at 7 p.m. on steelers.com and the Steelers YouTube channel.
