As we come closer to the Pro Football Hall of Fame ceremonies on Saturday, Aug. 7, Shutdown Corner will have features on all the 2010 inductees. We begin with Dick LeBeau, the former great cornerback and current defensive coaching genius. This is part one of a two-part interview; you can read the conclusion here.

"Everything he touches, he leaves it better than he found it. That is the special mark of the man." — Marvin Lewis

There is a very short list of people who can claim a legitimate and influential tenure of 50 years or more in the NFL — you're basically talking about the league's Mount Rushmore when you discuss names like George Halas, Paul Brown and Don Shula. All slam-dunk Hall of Famers, and it's past time to add another name to that list. Dick LeBeau, the humble genius who runs the Pittsburgh Steelers' defense, will enter the Hall this weekend in celebration of a pro football career that began in 1959, when the Ohio State grad caught on as a defensive back with the Detroit

Well, this ought to be a doozy. Breaking news from several sources [and one in particular, as you will soon see]: Terrell Owens(notes) has agreed to terms with the Cincinnati Bengals. The Bengals will pay Owens a guaranteed $2 million in 2010, with another possible $2 million in incentives.

Rumors had been running hard about this deal taking place ever since the St. Louis Rams bowed out of the bidding on Monday after showing interest in the 36-year-old receiver. The Bengals had signed Antonio Bryant(notes) to a four-year, $28 million contract in March of this year, but there has been ongoing concern about the veteran's surgically repaired knee. The team's pursuit of Owens would seem to indicate that there's more to that story than we may have heard.

[Photos: Latest images of T.O.]

While there are those who believe that Owens has little left to offer based on his sub-par stats with the Buffalo Bills last year, others who have studied the tape think that there may be a few good years

The Nashville Tennesseean is reporting that the Tennessee Titans are suing USC head coach Lane Kiffin and the USC football program for "maliciously" interfering with the contract of running backs coach Kennedy Pola. Tennessee Football Inc., the company that owns the Titans, filed the lawsuit Monday in Davidson County Chancery Court against both the university and Kiffin.

The Tennessean also first reported that Kiffin "stole" Pola to be USC's new offensive coordinator, which is not a problem in and of itself. After all, Titans head coach Jeff Fisher is a USC alum, and he took offensive coordinator Norm Chow from the Trojans after the 2004 season to do the same job for his team. As long as a coaching transfer isn't a lateral move, it's standard practice for the old team to be happy for the coach as he moves on to the new team. However, it's also good form to ask the old team before said poaching commences. And according to Fisher, that didn't happen.

"I am very disappointed in Lane

Offensive tackle Willie Anderson(notes) played 12 years with the Cincinnati Bengals from 1996 through 2007, made four Pro Bowls, and missed just two games in his first 11 seasons. He ended his career with the Baltimore Ravens in 2008 and will go down as one of the better players at his position of his era.

Anderson now lives in Atlanta, owns three Fatburger franchises (where we hope that JaMarcus Russell(notes) isn't hanging out...), and has a company called Think B.I.G. Entertainment. Anderson also may have a future in breaking and parsing NFL news, if his recent Tweets about the receiver situation in Cincy are any indication.

Just to catch you up: The latest on Terrell Owens(notes) was that the St. Louis Rams were the most interested party, with the Bengals said to be giving T.O. a hard look if Antonio Bryant(notes) wasn't 100 percent for camp and Chad Ochocinco(notes) didn't have a complementary receiver. According to Anderson, the team has been discussing the issue most intently:

If you wanted to add to your team's roster with as professional and under-the-radar a linebacker as possible, it would be difficult to do much better than Keith Bulluck(notes), who was selected by the Tennessee Titans in the first round of the 2000 draft and didn't miss a single start between 2002 and 2008. His 2009 was starting well - he played in the season's first 14 games, and was a major part of the team's turnaround from an 0-6 record. But the torn ACL he suffered in Week 15, and the fact that he turned 33 in April, had the Titans thinking twice about bringing him back with a new contract. The Detroit Lions, coached by former Tennessee defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz, showed some interest in Bulluck, but the veteran found a more captivating home near his Syracuse roots with the New York Giants.

Bulluck signed a one-year, $2.5 million contract with the G-Men on the 24th, and was almost immediately named the team's starting linebacker. In 2009, the Giants' defense took a huge

The news about former ESPN.com NFL analyst Jeremy Green becomes more and more bizarre and disturbing as the story unfolds, and it's appropriate to let our readers know that this story is not easy to take at times. Green, the son of ex-NFL head coach Dennis Green, was fired from the network after he was arrested on July 8 at a motel in Southington, Conn. on charges of first-degree possession of child pornography, possession of narcotics, and use of drug paraphernalia.

According to Hilda Munoz of the Hartford Courant, Green participated in an online chat with a woman with the screen name of "lendingmom12", shared sexually explicit photos and videos of a toddler, and told the woman he was chatting with that he "couldn't wait for her to bring her three children to Connecticut, according to the arrest affidavit, which was released to the public on Friday morning.

Green's internet activities were being tracked, presumably on whatever sites cater to that kind of talk, by a detective from the

While some veteran quarterbacks believe that their responsibilities to their new teams extend only to that which happens after training camp begins, others go out of their way to own a role that involves leadership and team chemistry.

So it is with new Redskins signal-caller Donovan McNabb(notes), who is not only working like a dog at the Fischer Center near his offseason home in Phoenix - he's also inviting his teammates to join him for what McNabb calls "Hell Week". As a tune-up for the team's training camp, which begins on July 29, McNabb told every receiver, tight end, and running back that they were all welcome to join him for a concentrated week of work that began last Monday.

"I think it's important for the specialists on the offense to have that chemistry, to have that bond," McNabb recently told Rick Maese of the Washington Post, "where they can trust me and I can trust them."

McNabb has done this for years, inviting his Philadelphia Eagles teammates in previous seasons, and

Very sad news from Ed Bouchette of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette - Kaye Cowher (pictured, far left), wife of ex-Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Bill Cowher, lost her battle with skin cancer and passed away on Friday in North Carolina at the age of 54.

Mrs. Cowher was a native of North Carolina - the Cowhers met while attending North Carolina State in 1976 - and the Cowhers moved there after Bill retired from coaching in January of 2007.

Services will be held on Monday.

Mrs. Cowher played basketball at North Carolina State, and was one of the first women in her home state to receive an athletic scholarship, according to Bouchette. She later played in the Women's Professional Basketball League until that league folded in 1981. She then married her husband, who was playing for the Cleveland Browns. The Cowhers' three daughters, Meagan, Lauren, and Lindsay, have all been basketball players, speaking to the strong influence of their mother -- and grandmother. Their father originally didn't