Father Murphy passes

[Bob in Jersey]

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

--
BOB

[Kevin M.]

Sounds like someone's family needs an FTD Pick-Me-Up Bouquet.

RIP Mr. Olsen, and thanks for being a Hollywood star who did NOT die
of a drug overdose.

--
Kevin M. (RPCV)

[PGage]

On Thu, Mar 11, 2010 at 9:24 AM, Bob in Jersey <bob.in...@juno.com> wrote:

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.