Saturday, March 13, 2010

MERLIN OLSEN : KILLED BY MESOTHELIOMA



Former LA Rams defensive lineman Merlin Olson died Thursday after battling mesothelioma for a year. Mesothelioma is a form of lung cancer usually cause by exposure to asbestos.
On the football field, Olsen was part of the Los Angeles Rams’ Fearsome Foursome defensive line that swallowed ball carriers whole. He, Lamar Lundy, Deacon Jones, and Rosey Grier gave no quarter on Sunday afternoons. You’d be better off running through a fire wearing a suit soaked with gasoline.

Olsen, like his line brethren, was mean, nasty, unforgiving, snarling, and angry.

But it was what he did, not what he was.

Merlin Olsen played 15 season in the NFL from 1962 TO 1976 and was the Football Leagues MVP in 1974 and had 14 Pro Bowl appearances.

He also spent time as a football broadcast analyst for NBC and CBS broadcasting companies and even had acting gigs in classic American TV shows "Father Murphy" and "Little House on the Prairie".

In December 2009, Merlin Olsen and others sued TV Studios and various companies for what he claimed was exposure to asbestos, linked to mesothelioma.

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