Todd Marinovich

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Todd Marinovich
Position (s):
Quarterback 		Jersey number (s):
12
born on July 4, 1969 in San Leandro , California
Career information
Active : 1991 - 2000
NFL Draft : 1991 / Round: 1 / Pick: 24
College : USC
Teams
Career statistics
TD - INT     8-9
Yards     1,345
QB rating     66.4
Stats at NFL.com
Career highlights and awards

  • No notable successes

Todd Marvin Marinovich (* 4. July 1969 in San Leandro , California ) is a former American American football - and Canadian football poker players at the position of quarterback . He played for the Los Angeles Raiders in the National Football League (NFL), for the Winnipeg Blue Bombers and the BC Lions in the Canadian Football League (CFL) and for the Los Angeles Avengers in the Arena Football League (AFL).

His career was overshadowed by parental pressures and serious drug problems that kept him only playing eight NFL games.

biography

Todd Marvin Marinovich was born the only child to Trudi and Marv Marinovich, a former University of Southern California (USC) football player . From birth he was trained by his parents to be the perfect football player: Marv Marinovich introduced stretching exercises for Todd's thighs when he was a month old and trained him so hard that Todd was four miles in one by the age of four could run for half an hour. Trudi Marinovich fed her baby virtually vegan with the exception of several glasses of raw milk a day, forbade him to watch cartoons as a child, played him only jazz and classical records and made him wear prismatic glasses to promote his peripheral vision. His whole life was subordinated to football, and until he was eighteen he had lived entirely organically .

Marinovich established himself as one of the most talented young quarterbacks with the Trojans , the football team at the University of Southern California. When stories of his remarkable youth surfaced, he was referred to as the "robo quarterback," after the film RoboCop . At the same time, however, Marinovich, who, by his own admission, had "never had a Big Mac, a cookie or a glass of Coke", began smoking marijuana and was caught with a small amount of cocaine in 1991 , which is why he was kicked off the USC team and made himself available for the 1991 NFL Draft .

The Los Angeles Raiders signed Marinovich with the 24th pick, and he became reserve man for starting quarterback Jay Schroeder . Marinovich hit the headlines when he signed "20 strippers and three porn stars" to his rookie get-to-know party and started taking ecstasy . After a night of partying and a threesome with two stewardesses, he was standing so next to him that Coach Art Shell couldn't replace him when Schroeder injured himself. But in the next game Marinovich completed 23 of his 40 throws and gained 243 yards of space before he was caught with a blood alcohol value of 3.2 ‰ and sent to a withdrawal home for 45 days.

In 1992 Marinovich fought in vain against his marijuana addiction, began taking LSD and was so unfocused that he was barely receptive at team meetings. He played seven games and threw five touchdowns , but also nine interceptions , and was banned from the NFL after two positive drug tests. Marinovich initially continued his career in the CFL with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers , but broke it off quickly. He used heroin and was sentenced to three months in prison for illegally growing hemp. In 1999 Marinovich returned to the CFL, played for the BC Lions , but without getting rid of his heroin addiction. His last professional engagement with the Los Angeles Avengers of the Arena Football League ended when he got such severe withdrawal symptoms that he pissed his pants and was plagued by stomach cramps shortly before kick-off, but still threw ten touchdowns. But after he was caught buying heroin, he was fired.

Marinovich got clean after detox in prison and has been painting since then. He lives with his wife Alexandria and a son. The sports broadcaster ESPN called Marinovich one of the "worst NFL draft picks of all time". In a later ESPN vote, an NFL expert panel voted him the “fourth biggest sporting flop of all time”.

Marv Marinovich's educational methods have been harshly criticized by sports journalist Jeff Merron (ESPN). For Merron it is considered an "example of how not to raise a quarterback", Marv was accused of "stealing Todd's life" and he attributes Todd Marinovich's serious drug and character problems to his "never lived childhood" back. California sports reporter Todd Sager said that Marv Marinovich was "a very good football coach ... but unable to see Todd as a person in his own right" and that Marv "passed his inability to exist outside of football to his son."

In 2011 ESPN shot the documentary The Marinovich Project , in which Marinovich himself, his family and many companions had their say. The relationship between Marinovich and his father is referred to by both sides as the "relationship between coach and player" who were "both totally football-obsessed". His father fell out over this with his wife Trudi, who divorced him in Todd's youth. As a college player Marinovich could no longer take the pressure, at the same time he wanted to finally feel personal freedom - and took refuge in drugs. His attending psychologist stated that “Todd Marinovich had only one goal in life: to become an NFL player. When he did so, he fell into a hole. ”After Marinovich became addicted to heroin, he had become“ a violent liar ”. After successfully completing his rehab, he was "finally back in life", but he repeated the words throughout the documentary: "Should football be my life just because I'm good at it?"

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Bred To Be A Superstar , ESPN.com
  2. ↑ a b c d Mike Sager: Todd Marinovich: The Man Who Never Was. April 23, 2010, accessed April 23, 2019 . , Esquire
  3. ^ The 100 Worst Draft Picks ever , ESPN.com.
  4. ^ The 25 Biggest Flops , ESPN.com.
  5. ^ The List: Sports' most harmful relatives , ESPN.com.
  6. ^ Quad Q&A: Esquire's Mike Sager on Todd Marinovich , The Los Angeles Times.
personal data
SURNAME Marinovich, Todd
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Marinovich, Todd Marvin (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American football player
DATE OF BIRTH 4th July 1969
PLACE OF BIRTH San Leandro , California