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RIP Merlin Olsen


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Don't know, but...asbestos is a mineral. Perhaps it was common where he grew up.

 

Perhaps dad was a fire fighter, ship builder, construction worker.

Asbestos was actually fairly common in building materials all the way through the early 1970s, added because of its flame-retardant properties. There was asbestos in the ceilings at my high school, and in the original floor tile in this house. And tons of it just down the street, in the factory where my grandfather and his brother worked. (My great-uncle died of lung cancer in 1981 -- the same year the PAAHP was established.)

 

Olsen himself worked in construction, as he pointed out in a lawsuit he filed after his diagnosis.

 

None of which matters now.

 

R.I.P.

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Always liked the Enberg-Olsen combo on NBC. RIP.

 

I've always wondered what happened to him as an announcer? He went from being part of NBC's #1 team to oblivion.......Does anybody know the story on that?

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I've always wondered what happened to him as an announcer? He went from being part of NBC's #1 team to oblivion.......Does anybody know the story on that?

 

Very good question that I also don't have an answer on. He was at his peak an an announcer during the Joe Ferguson years.

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(Conrad Dobler) then played two final seasons with the Buffalo Bills, retiring after the 1981 campaign. Dobler, known for such transgressions as punching Mean Joe Greene, spitting on a downed and injured opponent (the Eagles' Bill Bradley) and kicking Merlin Olsen in the head,[1] parodied his image in a Miller Lite beer commercial by getting a section of fans to argue the eternal question, "Tastes Great! Less Filling!" (Olsen got a measure of revenge by placing Dobler's name on a headstone in a scene from Olsen's TV series Father Murphy).

 

Wiki

 

I believe Olsen also cheapshot Dobler's knees, effectively ending his career.

 

PTR

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(Conrad Dobler) then played two final seasons with the Buffalo Bills, retiring after the 1981 campaign. Dobler, known for such transgressions as punching Mean Joe Greene, spitting on a downed and injured opponent (the Eagles' Bill Bradley) and kicking Merlin Olsen in the head,[1] parodied his image in a Miller Lite beer commercial by getting a section of fans to argue the eternal question, "Tastes Great! Less Filling!" (Olsen got a measure of revenge by placing Dobler's name on a headstone in a scene from Olsen's TV series Father Murphy).

 

Wiki

 

I believe Olsen also cheapshot Dobler's knees, effectively ending his career.

 

PTR

 

 

How so? Olsen retired in 1976, Dobler in 1983..... Or do you mean the other way around?

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(Conrad Dobler) then played two final seasons with the Buffalo Bills, retiring after the 1981 campaign. Dobler, known for such transgressions as punching Mean Joe Greene, spitting on a downed and injured opponent (the Eagles' Bill Bradley) and kicking Merlin Olsen in the head,[1] parodied his image in a Miller Lite beer commercial by getting a section of fans to argue the eternal question, "Tastes Great! Less Filling!" (Olsen got a measure of revenge by placing Dobler's name on a headstone in a scene from Olsen's TV series Father Murphy).

 

Wiki

 

I believe Olsen also cheapshot Dobler's knees, effectively ending his career.

 

PTR

 

I remember this was posted a while back with Conrads famous quotes:

One game, I knocked the crap out of Merlin Olsen. If you wanted to see it on instant replay, you had to go to the kitchen because I knocked him so far out of the TV frame. After the game, he says, "One of these days, someone's going to break Dobler's neck, and I'm not going to send any flowers." What happens? He gets the $500,000 FTD commercial, and I don't get ****. He goes to the Pro Bowl fourteen times. He's in the Hall of Fame. He's probably got more money than God. When he was doing Father Murphy on NBC, he had a graveyard scene. One of the tombs said: CONRAD DOBLER. GONE, BUT NOT FORGIVEN. It's been twenty years since I played him, and I'm still on his f mind. And I like that.

http://www.esquire.com/features/what-ive-l...L#ixzz0htsLFaZc

 

RIP Merlin Olsen

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Standard by which player color commentators should be measured. Godspeed Mr. Olsen.

 

 

Olsen and Enberg were a great pair for football, in my opinion. Those two and Criqui/Trumpy were two pairs of some very good NFL broadcasters. Add in Summerall/Madden and the '80s were a heyday of quality announcers. (I'm too young to recall the '60s or '70s, forgive me).

 

Rest In Piece, Mr. Olsen. You were truly a great one. :devil:

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