This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2005, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

One of the most honest, colorful and quotable athletes ever to play college football in Utah has returned, all wrapped in an emotional whir, to play arena football for the Utah Blaze.

"It's new, I know, but, oh man, people here are going to love this game," he says. "People are going to love the players. They are mostly NFL-type guys, talented guys. They're great players who want to play, who are passionate about playing. They don't just sit around on their big contracts. I'm as passionate now as I've ever been about football. This is just another chance for my passion to build. It grows every year."

Since leaving Brigham Young when LaVell Edwards did, Hans Olsen has survived a fistful of seasons in pro football, including three with the Indianapolis Colts, one with

the Arena Football League's Indianapolis Firebirds, and one with the AFL's New Orleans Voodoo.

That he ever made it that far is a mid-sized miracle.

After having his team's locker room and his personal locker commandeered by federal officials - "The place looked like an Army camp," he says - in the days after Hurricane Katrina hit, after all the Voodoo's players subsequently were sold off to an AFL franchise in Kansas City, Olsen was traded back, much to his approval, to the same state where his football career blossomed, where he met his wife, and where he found himself as a man.

Olsen can't underscore that last part enough.

"Sometimes, it's hard to figure out who you are," he says. "That's what I had to do at BYU. Everybody thought I'd be kind of a poor man's Chris Farley. Growing up, I was that chubby, funny guy who hurt inside. I was the kid who ate too much fudge and had no athletic ability. I was afraid to dream my dreams."

AFRAID TO DREAM

That condition was particularly painful for Olsen because he was the nephew - his father, Clark, was a brother - of three notable football players, including Utah State and NFL Hall of Famer Merlin; Phil, who also played at USU and had a productive pro career with the Rams; and Orrin, who played at BYU. Olsen once absorbed a pep talk from Merlin, who told him he had the genes and the wherewithal to make a success of himself. The youngster wanted to believe his famous uncle. He wanted to emulate so much familial greatness and play college and pro football one day, but doubts absolutely paralyzed him.

Instead, he nearly ate himself into oblivion.

He wallowed for a time in the comfortable, sluggish resolution of an overweight underachiever who constantly went for laughs among his classmates. When he was 13, Olsen stood 5-foot-5 and weighed 220 pounds. He was the Round Mound of Clown, a brutal mix of funny and sad. He tried to make others laugh alongside him, but too often they laughed at him. One educator told him he would never make it out of high school in the small town of Weiser, Idaho.

His mother, Fawn, who owned a candy store in town, once fired her son when he was a teenager for "eating too much of the product." He was diagnosed with attention deficit disorder in grammar school and, thereafter, took Ritalin until he was a freshman in college. Although he came from a religious family, Olsen, in his early years, wandered from the tenets of the faith, once saying: "I grew up a wild farm boy - on country music, cheap beer, and women with big hair and dark makeup."

MATURING AT BYU

In high school, though, Olsen also began his deliberate ascent toward achievement, laying off the excess food, lifting weights, working hard. Despite being recruited as a defensive lineman by big-time schools, he chose BYU because he wanted to, as he puts it, "straighten things out in my life."

That's exactly what happened, although, while in Provo, Olsen was a classic - and, sometimes, goofy - work in progress. During his junior year at BYU, he was described by Cougar - and, later, Colt - teammate Rob Morris thusly: "Hans should be in his own comic strip. It's like he sets his own reality. It's 'The World According to Hans.' Don't get me wrong. It's fun to be around him, to go there with him, but it's like a trip to 'Hans' Funhouse.' ''

Olsen balanced 20-foot tables on his chin and showed up for practice with dried pizza all over his face, just for chuckles. One teammate said it this way: "He [did] stupid things in front of everyone to get attention."

But, next thing, he met and married his wife, Amanda, and the maturing process hurried up.

"She was the first brick for me to build a solid foundation in my life," Olsen says. On the other hand, in college, he described her as "a tough lady. We wrestle a lot. She takes a headlock better than any girl I've ever known."

Seven years later, he says: "She still does."

Over that span, the couple has had two daughters, and Olsen's career has solidified itself. In the NFL, he played defensive and offensive line, although never both in the same game. After being cut loose by the Colts - he still has many friends on the team - he jumped immediately to Indy's AFL squad, where he not only played both ways, but also special teams.

"The [arena] game is right up my alley," he says. "I get to play all aspects. I just do it all. When you're in, you're in. I love that. I took to it like a duck to water."

COMING HOME

When the Indy franchise shut down, Olsen was taken in the first round of a dispersal draft by New Orleans, a place he enjoyed playing last year - until Katrina "threw everything into a blender."

As soon as he heard about the AFL expanding to Utah, the 28-year-old Olsen was eager to return to the place where he played college ball, to a city that is a mere 4 1/2 -hour drive from his offseason home north of Boise. The Blaze traded for Olsen in November, and the 6-foot-4, 295-pound center/defensive tackle has been in Salt Lake City this week to participate in the team's initial minicamp.

"I'm incredibly excited," he says. "Playing here, playing under Danny White. I'm telling you, this is the football to play. It's all crammed into a small space, a bunch of players going one on one. There aren't a lot of tricks in this version of football. It's just one man up against another man. I love that kind of competition.

"The NFL is a grind, it's specialized, it's all business. This is fun. I thank my lucky stars I'm playing pro football, making a good living at it, working with a bunch of guys who are playing because they love to play. We play for the pure joy of it."

Looking back at his path, from a hurting, pudgy, insecure, laughable young slug to a fully content family man, a success in his profession, Olsen shakes his head and says the best thing a man can say about his own existence:

"I'm happy. I'm living the life I always wanted to live. I figured out what I wanted to do and how to do it. I'm living a dream."

Gordon Monson can be reached at gmonson@sltrib.com. To write a letter about this or any sports topic, send an e-mail to sportseditor@sltrib.com.