Legendary NFL bust goes to jail after brutal setback
As NFL draft busts go, Todd Marinovich — a first-round selection by the Oakland Raiders in 1991 who only played in the NFL for two seasons — is one of the most infamous in history.
Marinovich was groomed to be the perfect pro quarterback by his father Marv, who micromanaged every aspect of his son’s development with incredibly intense training methods.
But that repressive childhood left the younger Marinovich an emotional wreck.
And with misery came substance abuse, which ended up being his downfall in the pros. Marinovich had already been busted for cocaine possession while at USC, and under the scrutiny of NFL drug testing, he got caught on three separate occasions.
The last infraction led to him being suspended for the entire 1993 season.
A quarter-century later, Marinovich has found himself in trouble with the law once again.
Marinovich was arrested twice in the span of several days last month, once on March 19 and again on March 23.
He was released after posting bail following the first arrest, but was then taken into custody again just days later.
Marinovich had been trying to stay sober for the sake of his family. Though he is no longer with his wife Alexandria, he does have two young children with her.
“My kids are my major motivator for me moving out to the desert to try to change my life,” he told The Desert Sun last August. “I don’t know if I would have done it if they weren’t here, but 100 percent I think kids, for somebody that’s struggling with the illness is a motivator. Is it enough? No. But seeing them get older so quickly. It was a real blow to me to see that they were just babies and now kindergarten, first, second, third grade.”
“I saw their childhood slipping before my very eyes and I said, ‘I gotta do something before I miss it,'” he added.
Marinovich had been arrested a year before giving that interview while wandering through a neighbor’s backyard naked, according to TMZ.
Police found a bag of of marijuana and meth nearby, and the arrest netted him a 2-year probation.
The former quarterback’s most recent troubles with the law, which a police spokesperson are due to a violation of his probation, is a tragic turn for someone who just last year seemed so dedicated to his rehab.
“I have a playbook now that allows me to respond to life, because here’s the deal, life is always going to be throwing things at you,” he said last August.
“If it is ever where things are going well, it’s not going to stay like this for long. And so it’s how I react or respond to it that is the magic in it. And I have a gameplan now that I’ve never had.”
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