On Thu, Mar 11, 2010 at 9:24 AM, Bob in Jersey <[email protected]>wrote:
> NFL Hall of Famer and former NBC employee Merlin Olsen, 69, from > mesothelioma. > > > http://www.latimes.com/sports/football/nfl/wire/sns-ap-fbn-obit-olsen,0,2572431.story > I grew up a Los Angeles Rams fan, and Merlin was always one of my favorites. A great football player, and by all accounts a great guy. He was an interesting phenomenon as a football announcer. For a period of years he was one of the best - something of an anti-Maddon, he was low key and articulate. But after a while that began to wear thin. He was in the Tim McGarver/Dan Dierdorff school of network sports analyst - meaning he did not really add very much to the broadcast, but leaned heavily on a few superficially intellectual constructions to create the false impression he was saying something important. Even before Dierdorff stole it, he was say something like "The ability to take a hit and not go down" in somewhat melodramatic tones, and then add "that's what makes Walter Payton so great". I never knew if he originally did make more substantive comments and later just ran out of gas and put it on autopilot, or if I was too young to notice early in his career - or too impressed that a football player could use multisyllabic words to notice he wasn't saying anything with them. Unlike fellow former Ram turned actor Fred Dryer, I never watched Merlin on TV (I have always HATED Little House on the Prairie and everything connected to it). But I was happy living in a world that also had Merlin Olsen, and I am a little less happy tonight. -- TV or Not TV .... The Smartest (TV) People! You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TV or Not TV" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/tvornottv?hl=en
