RIP Merlin Olsen

[Mark2010]

This thread makes me feel old.

 

[Double J]

Great SI story on Olsen from 1981.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1124138/4/index.htm

That is a great story. Thanks for posting that, Huggy.

RIP to a man who was, or seemed to be, everything I wish a real celebrity could always be.

Actually, scratch that - Merlin Olsen was everything to which everybody, celebrity or not, should aspire.

 

[cyclingwriter]

Page, Eller, Marshall and Larson(?); That was an amazing dline.

Best dline ever was Atkins, Jim Marshall, Henry Jordan and Willie Davis....oh wait, they never got to play together for the Browns in the 1960s because Paul Brown traded or let them all go for little return when they were young.

 

[Boom_70]

I think best D Line of all time was Steelers
Greene/ Greenwood/ White/ Holmes

 

[bjot]

We lost a great one.

 

[outofplace]

His playing career was before my time, but I grew up listening to his voice. Wonderful announcer, as good as I have heard among former players. RIP.

 

[Smallpotatoes]

It's a shame that he never seemed to become quite as popular an announcer as John Madden, who broke into the business at roughly the same time.
But I guess, "Look! He's scratching his balls! That's my kind of guy!" sells better than Olsen's more understated approach.

 

[Double J]

It's a shame that he never seemed to become quite as popular an announcer as John Madden, who broke into the business at roughly the same time.
But I guess, "Look! He's scratching his balls! That's my kind of guy!" sells better than Olsen's more understated approach.

In an increasingly dumbed-down society, it does indeed sell better. Sadly.

 

[Liut]

On NFL Network right now: Olsen and **** Stockton calling a Falcons-Cowboys game in 1991.

I caught that, too. It was sort of eerie.