Chip Oliver

{{Short description|American football player (born 1944)}}

{{Use mdy dates|date=January 2022}}

{{Infobox NFL biography

| name = Chip Oliver

| image =

| image_size =

| alt =

| caption =

| number = 56

| position = Linebacker

| birth_date = {{Birth date and age|1944|4|24}}

| birth_place = Winona, Mississippi, U.S.

| height_ft = 6

| height_in = 2

| weight_lbs = 220

| high_school = San Diego (CA) Hoover

| college = USC

| draftyear = 1968

| draftround = 11

| draftpick = 298

| pastteams =

• Oakland Raiders ({{NFL Year|1968}}–{{NFL Year|1969}})

| highlights =

| pfr = OlivCh20

}}

Chip Oliver (born April 24, 1944) is an American former professional football linebacker. He played for the Oakland Raiders from 1968 to 1969.{{cite web|url=https://www.pro-football-reference.com/players/O/OlivCh20.htm |title=Chip Oliver Stats |publisher=Pro-Football-Reference.com |date= |access-date=April 28, 2019}}{{cite web|url=http://www.nfl.com/player/chipoliver/2522459/profile |title=Chip Oliver, LB |work=Nfl.com |date= |access-date=April 28, 2019}} He left the team to join One World Family of the Messiah's World Crusade, he wanted to, but was unable to return to the team in 1971.{{Cite web|title=7 Jun 1971, 33 - Oakland Tribune at Newspapers.com|url=http://www.newspapers.com/image/547707018/?terms=%22One%20World%20Family%22&match=1|access-date=March 1, 2021|website=Newspapers.com|language=en}}

Oliver played the son-in-law Richard in "Those Were the Days," a 1969 television pilot which was the second attempt to start a sitcom eventually titled All in the Family.[https://www.nytimes.com/1971/07/04/archives/chip-oliver-flower-child-back.html "Chip Oliver: Flower Child Back," The New York Times, Sunday, July 4, 1971.] Retrieved August 13, 2021[https://books.google.com/books?id=ufx0DwAAQBAJ&dq=chip+oliver+rob+reiner&pg=PA8 Terrace, Vincent. Encyclopedia of Unaired Television Pilots, 1945-2018. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company, Inc., 2018.] Retrieved August 13, 2021[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F7QTS8ARMNg "Those Were the Days" (television pilot recorded Sunday, February 16, 1969) – YouTube (via Classic TV & More).] Retrieved August 13, 2021

Oliver was also the author of the 1971 book High for the Game: From Football Gladiator to Hippie, a Former Southern Cal and Oakland Raider Linebacker Tells All.{{cite book |last=Oliver |first=Chip |editor-last=Rapoport |editor-first=Ron |date=1971 |title=High for the Game: From Football Gladiator to Hippie, a Former Southern Cal and Oakland Raider Linebacker Tells All |publisher=William Morrow & Company |isbn=978-0688017880}} In a commentary on the book, Todd Tobias says "Oliver blasts professional football for treating players as pieces of meat, pumping them full of pain-numbing drugs and amphetamines, and then discarding them like common garbage when they can no longer sustain high levels of play on the field. In a way, Oliver was ahead of his time in his beliefs, and willingness to vocalize them." But that Oliver "loses vast amounts of credibility when he describes attending practices high on mescaline, advocates the use of LSD, and talks about smoking enormous amounts of marijuana."{{cite web |last=Tobias |first=Todd |date=December 16, 2013 |url=https://talesfromtheamericanfootballleague.com/linebacker-turned-hippie-high-for-the-game-a-book-review/ |title=Linebacker-Turned-Hippie… High for the Game – A Book Review |work=Tales of the American Football League |access-date=January 1, 2022}}