DSP OTHER SPORTS Thread

cue to usc marching band
but seriously, really is a tragic story...

The 'tragic' story of Todd Marinovich takes its latest turn
by Sam Laird | Associated Press — 8 hours ago

Former USC quarterback and NFL first round draft pick Todd Marinovich was charged Tuesday with trespassing, public nudity and drug possession after he was found naked in a stranger's Southern California backyard, according to multiple reports.

It's the latest chapter in Marinovich's sordid struggle with drug addiction, following his rise in the 1980s as a football prodigy, his downfall amid substance abuse, his apparent road to recovery in recent years — and now, his arrest in August after trying to force open the sliding glass door of a stranger's home in Irvine, California.

Marinovich was naked at the time. A bag was allegedly recovered from a nearby hiking trail containing his wallet, driver's license, marijuana, methamphetamine and drug paraphernalia. Prosecutors reportedly filed misdemeanor charges this week.

“It is a tragic story. We found him hiding in a backyard. Someone else’s backyard,” an Irvine police commander told the Los Angeles Times in August, after Marinovich was arrested.

It's a story that's all-too familiar to sports fans of a certain age, who witnessed Marinovich's original descent from glory. To others, the story might be new — but it contains familiar American elements of fame, pressure, self-harm and misfortune.

It's a story that starts with Todd's father, Marv Marinovich.

When Todd became a high school football superstar in Orange County, it was no accident. When he became a superstar at USC, one of the nation's premier college football programs, it was no accident. The New York Times in 1990 called him "the most highly anticipated U.S.C. football player since O.J. Simpson."

That was what Marv, a former NFL player and assistant coach, had raised him to be.

While still a teenager, Todd was dubbed the "Robo Quarterback," a nickname that stuck.

Reporters told of how Marv stretched Todd as an infant, helping to limber his body for future athletic success. Other oft-repeated tales recounted Marv putting Todd through grueling conditioning and football workouts when he was still just a child.

"To me, the Robo Quarterback means the guy has all the equipment," Marv told The New York Times in 1990, when Todd was the quarterback at USC. "Everything in sync. Everything balanced. The perfect machine."

Others, however, used the nickname as a criticism of Marv's parenting, which appeared uniquely focused on creating an athletic marvel. In a 2011 ESPN documentary called The Marinovich Project, long after his football career had washed out, Todd claimed no ill-will toward his father. He'd defended him earlier, too.

"People have the wrong impression about my father," Todd said in a TV interview while still at USC, according to a People magazine article from that era. "They think he drove me. [But] if not for my dad, I wouldn’t be here today playing this well."

To others, Todd seemed to struggle with the strict discipline and lofty expectations he'd known his entire life.

"I don't know what that really means," Todd told The New York Times of his "Robo Quarterback" nickname during his college days. "I think people can get the false idea of what I'm all about."

Todd's USC career ended in 1990 after a series of clashes with coach Larry Smith and a cocaine arrest in January 1991.

Still, he was a star. He had potential. He was the "Robo Quarterback."

Todd's hometown Los Angeles Raiders selected him in the first round of the 1991 NFL Draft later that spring.

Now fast forward 20 years. Todd is a painter. He's been making a living through art for some five years, according to a Los Angeles Times profile from October 2014 that chronicles his tough journey and apparent upward trajectory.

The "Robo Quarterback" threw a total of just eight touchdown passes in two seasons before his NFL career ended amid flagging performance and personal dysfunction. He bounced around a couple other leagues here and there over the next several years, all while battling recurring bouts with drug addiction. He went from gridiron hero to cautionary tale.

A modest on-field highlight came in 2000, when Marinovich threw 10 touchdown passes in an Arena Football League game for the Los Angeles Avengers. But he still struggled with drug abuse.

An Esquire magazine profile in 2009 chronicled his ups and downs in intimate detail — mostly though, there were downs. He used an Arena League bonus to buy heroin. He told of consuming both crack and heroin during halftime of a Canadian Football League game.

Yet in 2014, Todd seemed to be doing better. He'd been commissioned to paint a mural for $20,000 in Garden Grove, California, not so far from where he grew up and became a schoolboy star. He talked of his wife and two young kids.

He told the Los Angeles Times he'd never let the boy play football, though, because of the risk associated with head injuries. He said his wife and kids are his motivation.

"I need them because I am very impulsive and sometimes I don't make the best decision. Without them, who knows, all bets are off …" he told the paper.

That 2014 Los Angeles Times profile was one of the last times Marinovich made headlines. And that story's headline — "On road to recovery, Todd Marinovich discovers painting" — was certainly an optimistic one.

Perhaps, sports fans could be forgiven for thinking, his story had a happy ending after all.

Then came the arrest this August, with 47-year-old Marinovich found naked in a stranger's backyard and a stash of drugs allegedly found nearby. Then came the subsequent charges filed this week.

We don't know all the details of that August incident. We don't know what might have triggered a relapse — or even if Marinovich's circumstances were as optimistic as they seemed two years ago, when he was working as a muralist and discussing his wife and kids.

But it seems — for now, at least — that a happy ending to his story was too much to hope for.

 

and it's more prevalent than people realize
parents that couldn't make it on their own trying, as you say, to succeed vicariously through their kids
sadly i've seen it happen a lot
shameful, pathetic, inexcusable...
the kids always rebel eventually
drugs and crime are the most common, as they represent things they shouldn't be allowed to do
and a genuine fuck you to dad and/or mom
seldom ends well
and i know of two cases where the kids took their own lives
i say kids... but they would be in their 40's/50's had they lived
just sad

 

And putting Logan Thomas ahead of him? Dude was trash at VT.