Former Ram Olsen Leaves NBC to Join CBS Football Coverage

On the day NBC signed Pat Riley, CBS announced that it has hired Merlin Olsen.

Olsen has been a football commentator for NBC since 1977, the year after he retired from the Rams. Olsen reportedly will earn $400,000 a year at CBS, about the same salary he had at NBC.

He 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 as the network’s No. 1 team, was replaced last year by former San Francisco 49er coach Bill Walsh. Olsen was then paired with Charlie Jones.

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

The way the Walsh hiring was handled didn’t set well with Olsen, but he sidestepped that issue Wednesday. “I just want to concentrate on the positive side of this,” he said, adding: “Emotions and egos do play a big role in this business, but I must say that last year was very pleasant, and I particularly enjoyed working with Charlie Jones.”