Merlin Olsen, former NFL and college football great, passes
by BigBlueShoe on Mar 11, 2010 12:20 PM EST
in NFL General
20 comments
Quick history lesson: Waaaaaaaaaay back in 2001, the Colts had a guy on their roster named Hans Olsen. He was a defensive tackle out of BYU, and played on the same college football team that Rob Morris was on. Olsen wasn't a great player; more roster filler than anything else. In 2002, the Colts converted Hans to guard. He stayed on the team until 2003 where he was released during training camp of that year. He's been out of football since.
Despite playing roughly four years in the NFL, Hans was not known for his own accomplishments. He was known as the nephew of the great Merlin Olsen, the once-great Los Angeles Rams defensive tackle who played 15 years in the NFL; elected to 14 Pro Bowls over those 15 years.
To call Merlin "dominant" is to under-value his greatness. From 1962-1976, Merlin Olsen flat out scared people on the football field. There is no current equivalent to him in modern football. His 14 consecutive Pro Bowls are an NFL record.
Merlin also had an acting career post-football. He was elected in the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1999, twenty-three years after he retired. I won't get into why it took them so long to get him into the hall. It will just piss me off more.
[UPDATE]: Olsen was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1982. In 1999, he was listed by Sporting News at one of the top 100 players in league history. Sorry for the confusion. --bbs
Today, the great Merlin Olsen passed away. He'd been battling mesothelioma since being diagnosed last year. He is survived by his wife Susan Wakley, his three children (Kelly, Jill, and Nathan), his four grand kids, and his nephew Hans.
To Merlin Olsen. One of the greats.
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Sad.
I remember watching him with my dad as a kid while he was a member of The Fearsome Foursome.
RIP, Merlin.
"I throw, you catch. It's NOT that hard!"
Peyton Manning, SNL, 2007
by peytonsthebest on Mar 11, 2010 12:24 PM EST reply actions
BBS...
Very sad…one of my personal favorite players of ALL TIME…and a heck of a good guy off the field. He will be missed!!
"If me and King Kong went into an alley, only one of us would come out. And it wouldn't be the monkey."
"I don't really trust a sane person."
"I never met a man I didn't want to fight." The one and only Lyle Alzado
Man...
this has really messed me up!
"If me and King Kong went into an alley, only one of us would come out. And it wouldn't be the monkey."
"I don't really trust a sane person."
"I never met a man I didn't want to fight." The one and only Lyle Alzado
A little before the time I was really attentive to football
but because he had been with the team I grew up with (the L.A. Rams), I remember them doing a lot of flashbacks and interviews and such.
What a horrible disease he eventually succumbed to… may he rest in peace.
How can you not love a team that does this?
Hall of Fame
He was inducted into the HOF in ’82
Which...
Is going to make BBS’s anecdote all the more interesting, when he gets around to telling it.
Here’s the ’99 class, incidently:
Eric Dickerson
Tom Mack
Ozzie Newsome
Billy Shaw
Lawrence Taylor
Yeah
I got a note about 1999 and it was actually his getting listed as one of the top 100 players in league history. The article is corrected.
SB Nation's Indianapolis Colts blogger at Stampede Blue. Please make an account so you can post a FanPost, make a FanShot, add some comments, and make some noise. Accounts are free, and only require an email address.
Panthers fan
When I saw this pop on SBNation I feel compelled to jump in and say how great it was to watch him play. How amazing a person he seemed to be and how sad I felt over hearing he passed. Truly a one-of-a-kind player and “dominating” undervalues how incredible he was.
Folks, Olsen was *The Man*
You know how far across football history you have to stretch to get a reasonable gathering of his peers? Who else would be in his class? Mean Joe Green is the only one I can think off of the top of my head. Olsen was a beast in his day.
It’s sad to see a great one pass, but he had a hell of a career during his time on earth. He’s one who’s life is to be celebrated, for sure.
------
"How can a pickup truck contain enough mass to unfold into a towering machine? I say if Ringling Brothers can get 15 clowns into a Volkswagen, anything is possible."
to call him "dominate"?
facepalm
I think the word you are looking for is “dominant”.
Bill Polian has forgotten more about football than you ever have or ever will know.
facepalm
Sorry. I was reading emails about interviewing Chris Long when I wrote this. I multi-task too much.
SB Nation's Indianapolis Colts blogger at Stampede Blue. Please make an account so you can post a FanPost, make a FanShot, add some comments, and make some noise. Accounts are free, and only require an email address.
Actually, he was thinking about someone's girlfriend and the word "dominatrix" just came to mind...
Oooops. Did I reveal too much? 
------
"How can a pickup truck contain enough mass to unfold into a towering machine? I say if Ringling Brothers can get 15 clowns into a Volkswagen, anything is possible."
He must have made a few guards piss their pants . . .
. . . . .and his pals Deacon Jones, Lamar Lundy, Roosevelt Grier and later Roger Brown
formed quite the Fearsome Foursome. The Colts Hall of Famer Jim Parker, I am certain, has a few not so fond memories of tangling with Merlin and that group. Epic.
When I was a kid
Used to watch the foursome chasing Unitas around. In the 60’s the Colts and Rams were two of the better teams in the league. One year, 65 or 66, I think, they were both undefeated and the Rams won it….Which is when I began hating the Rams. In those days, they had something called the “Playoff Bowl” for undisputed second place, of all things.
Over on FO, fellow Colts fan Yaguar posted a couple stunning numbers
in one of those years, maybe 66, their D allowed 6 rushing TDs in the days when running was king, and collected 32 INTs when passing was not. Assuming a 55/45 R/P split (60/40?) and the opposite today, that equates to maybe 4 Rush TDs and 45+ INTs. How the hell do you score on them? Special Teams? ooh, check that, I forgot that they played just 12 games that year. So maybe it equates to 7 Rush TDs and 60 INTs.
In-sane.
It all starts with the D-line.
Oh, and while it’s fashionable to bash the pro bowl (just look who played this year!) Olson made his 1st 14 straight. Sweet Pop Warner, that’s amazing.
I hate Joe Namath. That's how long I've been a Colts fan.
Playoff Bowl, I remember that
Teams actually played hard, too. That extra check meant a lot back then, before the kind of paychecks getting tossed around these days.
I remember that Colts/Rams rivalry, too. I still can picture the scene of Mike Curtis damn near decapitating Roman Gabriel.
Those two teams both had pretty impressive rosters. Plenty of future Hall of Famers were knocking heads when they tee’d it up.
by oldecoltsfan on Mar 11, 2010 5:28 PM EST up reply actions
mmmmmm, Mike Curtis
Was the MLB slot called “Mike” before him? Probably, but still, seems appropriate that is sounds like it’s named after him. It’s not called “Dick” after Butkus, is it?
I STILL think of Ted Hendricks as a Colt, which is pretty weird because he was a Raider forever. They had some LBs back then….
I hate Joe Namath. That's how long I've been a Colts fan.
One of the truly great ones
of a bygone era. Sad
Like many, I knew him more from his acting
and game commentary than from his football—just born a bit too late to have seen him play.
Given his personality, I had assumed he was OL. Defensive linemen are supposed to bite the heads off of small animals and that sort of thing, he seemed more the type to cuddle the critter (or send somebody flowers).
Looked up his bio one day.
Holy %#$#!!!!
I think they said he still holds the Rams’ tackling record with 915 (LT ended up with just over a thousand for his career, and he was a linebacker). Oh yea, and he was NFL MVP one year…as a defensive tackle…Ha!
Phi Kappa Phi to boot.
Man, sure wish we could find ourselves one of those.
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