Todd Marinovich, the Happy Ending

Anyone see the artwork by Todd? It's fantastic, the man is a very very talented artist, really like the works of Montana, Bradshaw, Jimi Hendrix, Tom Waits, Lou Reed. www.toddmarinovich.com

 

I was in the stands as a high schooler. My best friend in high school's father was a USC alum and we went to the UCLA-USC game every year.

Best game of anything I've ever seen. I would have bet just about anything that Marinovich and Maddox were going to be huge NFL stars.

 

We were doing an end of the century blowout of the best players and the best games of the last century and he was on the list of the best high school players ever and one of the best games ever.

 

I'm enjoying the fact that after participating in this thread, I'm getting a strip ad on the bottom of the page for something called Sober College, which his not your ordinary rehab.

Got to love online marketing.

 

I watched the documentary over the weekend and was impressed with how self-effacing Marinovich is. Not quite to the Chris Herron level, but Todd seemed pretty at peace all things considered. The film also goes to great lengths to show that while everyone around Todd though Marv was insane and irresponsible, Todd doesn't seem to think so.

Then again, that could all be part of the 12 steps, I don't know. But there doesn't seem to be much bitterness there.

 

I don't think it's insane as a parent to want the best for you kid and to want to give him/her every advantage.

But you also have to allow kids to be kids.

And you need a certain type of mentality to be QB. If you don't have that leadership quality, you'll never make it.

 

Shouldn't it read "want the best for me kid"?

 

If you've never read Mike Sager's story from Esquire, it's a great read. National Magazine Award winner.

http://www.esquire.com/features/the-game/todd-marinovich-0509

 

His art is really pretty good. I'm impressed. Who knows where he might have wound up if he hadn't been pushed into sports.

 

Maybe if Marv was an artist instead of a football coach, Todd's art talents would have been further nurtured.

Either way they guy was born with a few talents that most do not have.

 

Isn't a wordsmith kind of like being an artist?