Todd Marinovich, the Happy Ending

His relationship with his father seems to be pretty good all things considered.

I may be in the minority on this one, but I think his father's intentions were pretty good.

 

Not only that, but Marv today wouldn't be all that different from your run-of-the-mill parent of a 10-year-old travel ball star. Back then Marv was 1,000 percent crazier than anyone else you'd meet. Now he might be 10 percent crazier.

As proof, I offer this: Marv Marinovich is still paid, by other people, to train their kids to be Division I quarterbacks. The three Forcier shitheads are the top examples, but it's a somewhat thriving business IIRC. He is no longer considered a nutjob.

 

If you haven't seen it, there was a very interesting story about his Arena League days ...

 

True. That was the takeaway everyone remembers 20 years later.

Hell, my brother & his wife would make Marv look over indulgent. His kids barely eat.

 

I think I covered his last college game, because if memory serves he was suspended for the 1990 USC-UCLA game and didn't play in the bowl.

 

Actually the USC-UCLA game is his career highlight and is a big part of the documentary. He won it at the end in a shootout. But the bowl game, which he did play in, was an utter disaster and the end of his college days.

 

I talked to Marinovich at the end of 1999 which may have been when he was at his most fucked-up.

He was one of those guys who I thought was going to be a complete dick and was as nice as you could possibly expect and he may have still been on heroin at the time...

 

I was a beat writer covering the Avengers when he was playing for them. Had a pretty interesting day when I got a phone call from their PR guy that Marinovich had been arrested at their practice facility. I don't think that was the type of publicity they wanted in their inaugural season.

To echo what Mizzougrad said, I always found him to be a very easy person to deal with, although it was pretty obvious in interviews that maybe he wasn't all...there. I haven't watched the doc but plan to this weekend - much like Herron, I hope he's able to continue to turn his life around, although they are both fighting tough battles.

 

The happy ending stories are fun as hell to write, but most fall apart at some point. Marinovich's age at this point may help him.

 

I saw him in a hotel bar the night before a MNF game in Kansas City.

Which I am told reliably he played high.

 

Agreed. Just hope he finds "sweet moderation." That's the thing I find that many addicts struggle with, and he seems to be the classic example. He was "raised" that way, but I'm curious if his father raised him that way - and Todd embraced it - because his dad was dad did a bad thing or because there's something in the genes that they share that sort of predispose them to this sort of addictive behavior.

 

Well, he may have thought you were Will Ferrell playing a cowbell and felt humbled?