Todd Marinovich QB, Oakland Raiders, 24th overall 1991
Marinovich’s childhood has been well documented: His mother didn’t eat any salt or sugar during her pregnancy. During Todd’s infancy, he was only fed fresh vegetables, fruits, and raw milk and slept with a stuffed football in his crib. At a very early age, his father, Marv, made him go through athletic and strength and conditioning training. At one month old, Marv put Todd through physical conditioning where he would stretch Todd’s hamstrings. He moved on at later ages to push-ups, medicine ball training, and exercises on the balance beam.
His high school career was very successful. He was named to the Parade All-American Team and broke the national high school record for all-time passing yards by passing for 9,914. He was also featured in a Sports Illustrated article, “Bred To Be A Superstar.” The article described the special way he was brought up.
After high school however, Marinovich was away from home (and his father) for the first time. He had an inner struggle: now that he had so much freedom, he was forced to choose between what he was taught to do and what he could do with the new freedom college offered. The pressure was on and he succumbed to it. He developed drug problems (marijuana and cocaine at first) and after the 1990 college football season, he declared for the NFL Draft.
He was selected by the Oakland Raiders with the 24th pick in the first round of the 1991 draft. That would be the highest point in his career, unfortunately. He soon developed more drug problems (pharmaceutical amphetamines and LSD). After failing three NFL drug tests, his NFL career was over just before the start of the 1993 NFL season.
After the NFL, he hopped from the CFL, to the AFL, but never stuck due to continuing problems with drugs and withdrawals from addictions. During his time in the NFL, CFL, and AFL, he came and went from rehabs and drug programs.
So what does he do now? He’s an artist. Huh? Well, he majored in Fine Arts at USC. His mother always encouraged Todd’s interest in art, music, and classical Hollywood cinema. Todd sells his artwork through his own website: www.toddmarinovich.com.
He’s also married to Alexandria and they have a son, Baron Buzzy Marinovich.