Learning to Be Human Again: Todd Marinovich speaks about his abusive father and childhood

[easycheesy]

BY MICHAEL ROSENBERG

His name is a parenting epithet. Overcoach your kid, get too excited about a touchdown or a home run or a goal, and you might hear it, even in jest: You're just like Marv Marinovich! Look at Marv Marinovich over here! The story is part of American lore, the ultimate in Sports Dad Goes Overboard. BRED TO BE A SUPERSTAR, read the Feb. 22, 1988, Sports Illustrated headline. And the subhead: Todd Marinovich was groomed from infancy to be a top-notch quarterback.

Infancy was not hyperbole. America's first test-tube athlete, they called Todd. The Robo QB. Marv stretched his son's hamstrings at one month old, and had him teething on frozen kidney and trying to lift medicine balls before he could walk. Marv used Eastern Bloc training methods and consulted as many as 13 experts, including biochemists and psychologists, to build his quarterback. Most famously, as SI wrote, Todd was the least 1980s child of the '80s: "He has never eaten a Big Mac or an Oreo or a Ding Dong."

Marv said he tried to create "the perfect environment" for "the healthiest possible child." Todd, then 18, gushed about how well it worked, telling SI, "There is no way somebody could be made to do all this stuff. I choose to do it." He did it, he said, because his goal was "actually to be the best quarterback who ever threw the ball." He told The New York Times, "I can remember asking my dad: 'What can I do to improve my performance? What would be the plan?'"

Todd became a USC starter and, in 1991, a Los Angeles Raiders first-round pick, rising just high enough for the country to notice his fall into drug addiction. Todd was arrested so often that once, when he returned to the James A. Musick minimum-security facility in Irvine, Calif., guards played the Welcome Back, Kotter theme song over the loudspeakers. Then they played the Raiders' march. Todd became a joke, and Marv a cautionary tale.

[easycheesy]

It's REALLY sad. I know a lot of the older folks lurk around here so you remember who this cat is. Todd is now pursing art, his true passion and you can find his paintings online.

[John Q. Public]

I shortened the quote so it wasn't a copyright violation.

Now, ya got a link to the source?

[easycheesy]

https://www.si.com/nfl/2019/01/11/todd- ... rugs-rehab

[easycheesy]

https://www.marinovichart.com/shop This is his website. He started at Mater Dei back then then transferred to capo Valley

[John Q. Public]

Thank you.

[Wabash]

There is a great documentary called The Marinovich Project.

I highly recommend it.

[OutOfState]

It's REALLY sad. I know a lot of the older folks lurk around here so you remember who this cat is. Todd is now pursing art, his true passion and you can find his paintings online.

I went to school with Marinovich for 2 years at MD and have vivid memories of Marv being around campus and in the weight room. If these walls could talk I have some stories to tell

[easycheesy]

I went to school with Marinovich for 2 years at MD and have vivid memories of Marv being around campus and in the weight room. If these walls could talk I have some stories to tell

Reading that story of Marv is the perfect example of what NOT to do as a parent. Geez. Now he can't even remember anything

[OutOfState]

Now he can't even remember anything

Marv is 6 feet under. I remember reading this article a few years ago.