Top NFL Busts: From Hero to Zero (Part 4)
This is the final part of the previous parts of this article, discussing the top busts of the NFL.
Last but certainly not least on the list of the top NFL busts is Todd Marinovich. He went through a lot of training as a child, and even before he was born, he had a strict diet. His father harmed his own NFL career by overtraining, and was hired by the
Oakland Raiders as the NFL’s first strength-and-conditioning coach after intensely studying training methods. He applied his techniques to his son even before he was able to walk. While Marinovich’s mother was pregnant with him, his father made her follow
a strict diet, using no salts, tobacco, alcohol, or sugar. After Marinovich was born, he was fed only fresh fruits and vegetables and also raw milk. In high school, he became the first freshman to start a high school football game in Orange County, California.
He later broke Orange County’s all-time passing record and then the national high school passing record, with 9,914 yards.
Marinovich had an article focused on him in Sports Illustrated, titled “Bred To Be A Superstar,” focusing on his father’s upbringing to make him the “perfect quarterback.” The article called him “America’s first test-tube athlete” and said that
“When Todd was one month old, Marv [his father] was already working on his son's physical conditioning,” and that “there was a football in Todd's crib from day one. ‘Not a real NFL ball,’ says Marv. ‘That would be sick; it was a stuffed ball.’”
In high school, Marinovich started to drink and smoke marijuana to deal with peer pressure as well as the pressure from his father. Rumors spread to his opposing fans, and taunted him by calling him “Marijuana-vich.” When he graduated from high
school, he attended the University of Southern California, where his father’s high expectations overwhelmed him. His parents had divorced in high school, and he left school in his freshman year at USC to visit his mother. He said that “I wish I could go somewhere
else and be someone else. I don't want to be Todd Marinovich." After he returned to school, USC’s starting QB was injured, and Marinovich was the first freshman to start the season for USC since World War II. He led the Southern California Trojans to a 9-2-1
season record, a Pac-10 conference victory, and a Rose Bowl victory in 1990.
Marinovich then left school for the NFL after being arrested for the possession of cocaine. He was picked by the Raiders in the NFL Draft in the first round, 24th pick, ahead of the infamous Brett Favre. He had a great debut in the NFL, completing
three of four passes for 16 yards, with one touchdown in his first game. His first start came with 23 completions of 40 passes for 243 yards. After his excellent start, he was chosen to start in the playoffs, but played very poorly. Marinovich never played
in the NFL again, after throwing three interceptions of his first ten passes in a game against the Philadelphia Eagles. His career crashed because of his serious substance abuse. Due to his cocaine-related arrest at USC, Marinovich was subjected to random
drug tests by the NFL, and passed most of them because he had used his friend’s urine. Once when he used his friend’s urine, Mavarich was forced into rehabilitation, after the test recorded a blood-alcohol level that was four times the legal limit. He did
not know that his friend has been drinking heavily. After the season ended, he spent another 45 days in rehab, which caused Marinovich to start using LSD, because it would not register on a drug test. He failed two more drug tests, once for alcohol and once
for marijuana, which forced the NFL to cut him from the league. Since his high school cocaine possession arrest, Marinovich has been arrested eight times, ranging from skateboarding to sexual assault.
The players in this article all had great expectations, but were not able to perform, whether from injuries, drug abuse, or attitude problems. However, one should know: don’t do drugs, treat others as you want to be treated, and don’t oversell yourself.
This wasn’t meant to be a motivational article, but one can learn something from the mistakes of others.
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