Olsen Leaves NBC to Join CBS Telecasts

Football commentator Merlin Olsen has been hired away from NBC by CBS, it was announced today.

Olsen, the former Rams All-Pro, was with NBC for 14 seasons and worked five Super Bowls.

His NBC salary reportedly was $400,000 a year, and he’ll make about the same with CBS, a source said.

Olsen probably will be paired with Dick Stockton, but the network won’t announce its football announcing teams until next week.

Olsen, who for most of his tenure at NBC worked with Dick Enberg on NBC’s No. 1 team, last year was demoted and replaced by former San Francisco 49ers Coach Bill Walsh. Olsen was paired with Charlie Jones.

Olsen found out about the demotion after word of the Walsh hiring leaked out the night NBC was televising baseball’s All-Star game last July in Anaheim.

Terry O’Neil, executive producer of NBC Sports, called an emergency meeting with Olsen, and the two met late at night at a restaurant in the City of Commerce.

The way the Walsh hiring was handled didn’t sit too well with Olsen, but he sidestepped that issue today.

“I just want to concentrate on the positive side of this.”