Card: 1964 Philadelphia Football #91

Team/Position: Los Angeles Rams / Defensive Tackle

Cost: $4.00

Depending on when you discovered the wonderful game of football, you’ll definitely have a different opinion of Merlin Olsen.

Olsen played 15 years of Pro Football all with the same team:  The Los Angeles Rams.  If you were watching the game anywhere from 1962 to 1976, you know Merlin Olsen as a hard-working, smart,  defensive beast that couldn’t help but work his way to the Pro-Bowl in 14 of his 15 seasons.

Arguably more impressive than the 14 Pro Bowls, a record that he shares with Bruce Matthews, is Olsen’s participation in every single game.  Olsen didn’t miss a game in his entire 15-year career, as a defensive end!Along with Olsen, the Rams’ defensive line consisted of Deacon Jones, Lamar Lundy and Roosevelt Grier — The Fearsome Foursome.  Without a doubt, this was one of the greatest defensive lines ever assembled.

After Olsen’s playing career came to an end, he quickly teamed-up with Dick Enberg to form one of the better broadcasting teams of the 1980′s.

Around the same period, Olsen enjoyed moderate success as an actor.  Olsen stared on Little House on the Prairie as Jonathan Garvey for 49 episodes alongside Michael Landon.

Finally, in one of the better lines of Anchor Man, Will Farrell claims to know Merlin Olsen to impress a woman.

Olsen’s Alma-Mater, Utah State, recently re-named the field to honour their greatest player, none other than Merlin Olsen!

I really love these Philadelphia cards, especially the backs.  As you can see Olsen was a great student, and eventually went on to earn a masters degree in Economics during the off-season.

Card: 1984 Topps Football Card #280

Team/Position: Los Angeles Rams, Indianapolis Colts,  Oakland Raiders / Runningback

Cost: $5.00

For some reason, I feel that runningbacks of the 80′s definitely get lost in the wash. Emmitt Smith and Barry Sanders went about destroying records at such a frequency that the Eric Dickersons and Marcus Allens of the world are all too often forgotten.  The 80′s was essentially, Walter Peyton or bust.

Eric Dickerson was absolutely amazing though, and his rookie card comes from one of the best football sets out there: 1984 Topps Football.

Dickerson’s one of the few men to ever rush for over 2000 yards and still holds the record for rushing yards in a single season with 2,105 yards which he accomplished in his second season.

In 1989, Dickerson became the fastest player to reach 10,000 yards, accomplishing the feat in only 91 games — Faster than Sanders (103 G), than Brown (98 G) and Emmitt and LT too (106 G).

Dickerson was a terrific back, and probably best known for making things look easier than a sorority girl.  Dickerson was just so incredibly fluid through the hole, and then accelerating through the second level.

I’m a fairly avid reader of FootballOutsiders where Dickerson’s name pops up in one of the most circulated fantasy football caveat:

A running back with 370 or more carries during the regular season will usually suffer either a major injury or a loss of effectiveness the following year, unless he is named Eric Dickerson

Dickerson eventually began to falter late in his career, but that was mainly due to contract disputes and general unhappiness.  Early in Dickerson’s career, he defied the odds by running the ball almost 400 times per year without losing a step — He WAS the Rams offense.

Eric Dickerson was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1999.