Olsen Doesn’t See How USC Rates as Rose Bowl Favorite

Merlin Olsen’s 19-year-old daughter, Jill, is a sophomore at USC, and Olsen’s broadcast partner, Dick Enberg, is from Michigan.

“I guess that kind of balances things out,” Olsen said.

He and Enberg will announce today’s 2 p.m. Rose Bowl game between USC and Michigan State for NBC. It will be the ninth straight Rose Bowl they have worked.

In a way, it’s a nice assignment for Olsen, since his home in San Marino is only a few miles from the stadium. But it’s a tough assignment, too, because it’s the only college game Enberg and Olsen do.

“I’d say it’s about 2 1/2 times as difficult as a regular-season NFL game, when you’re talking about the time it takes to prepare” Olsen said.

Olsen has spent the week visiting the teams’ practice sites, reviewing films and reading as much material as possible.

So, what does he think?

“I’d say for the first time in a long time the Pac-10 representative is outmanned,” he said. “I know USC is favored, but, gosh, I don’t see how the people who do those things came up with that.

“I’d say the strength of the Michigan State team is the way it controls the line of scrimmage. It has an excellent running game offensively, and, defensively, it is No. 1 in the nation against the run.

“And Michigan State also has a great punter in Greg Montgomery. They say the average hang time on his punts is five seconds. They call him the Rainmaker because he kicks ‘em so high.

“I think what it boils down to for USC is that Rodney Peete has to have a superb day throwing the ball. USC is going to have to score a lot of points, and Peete is the one who has to come through. There is an awful lot of pressure on him, but he seems to be the kind of player who can handle it.”

Daughter Jill is one of Olsen’s three children. Kelly, 22, a graduate of the University of Pacific, works for the public relations firm of Hill and Knolton, and son Nathan, 14, is a freshman at San Marino High School.

Nathan, 6 feet, 160 pounds and growing, was a tight end and a defensive end for San Marino’s ninth-grade team, which won its league championship.

“I haven’t pushed him at all,” Olsen said. “In fact, quite the contrary. But he seems to really enjoy playing football. He’s also on the basketball team, but this week he is skiing.

“Someone asked him the other day which he likes better, skiing or football, and he said football.”

Olsen is now in his 11th season with NBC, and has been the network’s No. 1 football commentator for the last 10. Considering the instability of the television business, that may be a greater accomplishment than playing 15 seasons of pro football as a defensive tackle, and making the Hall of Fame.

Olsen spent all 15 of those seasons with the Rams, a team that has fallen on hard times.

“I know all about lean years,” Olsen said. “My rookie year, in 1962, we were 1-12-1. That was followed by three more losing seasons.

“Most of the current Rams haven’t gone through a losing season before. What they have to do now is tell themselves that they know they are a better team than they showed this year.”

Are they really a better team?

“I think so,” Olsen said. “But they do have to improve in some areas. They have to improve their pass rush, and they have to find some receivers who can catch the ball. Also, they have to do something about the running-back situation. You’ve got to have more than one running back.”

Asked about the Eric Dickerson fiasco, Olsen said: “My philosophy is, you pay the players who are performing well. You don’t give $6 million to a rookie and not take care of the people who are performing.

“You just don’t find an Eric Dickerson every day. Joe Robbie in Miami and Patrick Bowden in Denver aren’t known for their generosity, but they have taken care of Dan Marino and John Elway.

“Ram management should have bitten the bullet and done what it took to keep Dickerson.

“But on the other hand, I didn’t like the way Dickerson handled the situation. It got ugly.

“I was surprised how calmly his teammates reacted. What would have enraged me was when he refused to play. If I was playing, and fighting for every dollar, and then have another player say he didn’t want to play, essentially taking money out of my pocket . . . well, that’s when I would have gotten angry.”

Olsen is making a comeback as a television actor. He’s the star of a new NBC series, “Aaron’s Way,” in which he plays the father of an Amish family that moves from Pennsylvania to the wine country in Northern California.

He went to Australia last March, since that is the wine season there, to film a two-hour pilot. NBC brass thought enough of the pilot to order nine one-hour episodes, which have been completed.

The pilot is scheduled to be shown March 7. The date for the first episode has not been set.

Women at work: It’s a big week for women in sports television. Last Sunday, Gayle Sierens became the first women to do play-by-play on an NFL game, and drew rave reviews to boot. And today the other Gayle, former ESPN announcer Gayle Gardner, makes her debut with NBC.

She’ll be the studio host in New York for NBC’s college bowl tripleheader. One of her assignments will be to interview former Ohio State coach Earle Bruce during halftime of the Fiesta Bowl.

A respite: For football-weary viewers, there’s a boxing match of note on CBS Saturday, and ABC’s bowling season, the one involving strikes and spares, begins.

The CBS fight has North Hollywood middleweight Michael Nunn, 27-0 with 15 knockouts, facing Kevin Watts, 17-3 with 9 knockouts, live from the Country Club in Reseda. The fight is part of CBS’ “Sports Saturday” show, which begins at 1:30 p.m. The fight is scheduled to start around 2.

Before the fight, CBS will profile Nunn, the pride of the Ten Goose boxing stable, which is run by Dan Goossen and others in the Goossen clan. Among those interviewed for the profile piece were Sugar Ray Leonard, Mr. T, and actor George Wendt, who plays Norm on “Cheers.”

ABC’s initial bowling telecast of the season will be the Alameda Open from Alameda, Calif. Channel 7 will show the final matches of the tournament at 3 p.m., a delay of three hours.

TV-Radio Notes

Today’s announcers on bowl games other than the Rose Bowl: Florida Citrus Bowl on ABC at 9 a.m.: Gary Bender and Lynn Swann, with Steve Alvarez on the sidelines; Cotton Bowl on CBS at 10:30: Brent Musburger and Pat Haden, with John Dockery on the sidelines and Jim Nantz serving as halftime host; Fiesta Bowl on NBC at 10:30 a.m.: Charlie Jones and Jimmy Cefalo; Sugar Bowl on ABC at 12:30 p.m.: Keith Jackson and Bob Griese with Mike Adamle on the sidelines, and Orange Bowl on NBC at 5 p.m.: Don Criqui and Bob Trumpy with Tom Hammonds on the sidelines. . . . It was nice hearing Ray Scott’s voice on the Freedom Bowl telecast Wednesday night.

Sunday’s NFL wild-card game announcers: Minnesota-New Orleans on CBS at 9:30 a.m.: Pat Summerall and John Madden; Seattle-Houston on NBC at 1 p.m.: Marv Albert and Joe Namath. The team of Albert and Namath will be making its Los Angeles debut. None of their games were shown here during the regular season. . . . Madden and his bus will be featured today during the last half hour of “CBS This Morning.” . . . David Mirisch, who produces celebrity sporting events throughout the country, will be a guest sportscaster as he fills in for Ed Arnold on KMPC next Wednesday morning at 8 and 8:30.