Todd Marinovich

His father, Marv Marinovich, had been a lineman and a captain for the USC Trojans during the 1962 national championship season and played in the 1963 Rose Bowl.

Marinovich's mother, Trudi (née Fertig), was a high school swimmer who dropped out of USC to marry Marv.

Her brother Craig was a star USC quarterback at this time.

After harming his own National Football League lineman career by overtraining and focusing too much on weight and bulk, Marv studied Eastern Bloc training methods and was hired by Oakland Raiders owner Al Davis as the NFL's first strength-and-conditioning coach.

Marv later opened his own athletic research center and applied the techniques to his young son, introducing athletic training before Marinovich could leave the crib and continuing it throughout his childhood and adolescence.

Marv saw an opportunity to use techniques, focusing on speed and flexibility, that later formed the basis for modern core training.

During her pregnancy, Trudi used no salt, sugar, alcohol, or tobacco; as a baby, Todd was fed only fresh vegetables, fruits, and raw milk.

Marv Marinovich commented, "Some guys think the most important thing in life is their jobs, the stock market, whatever. To me, it was my kids. The question I asked myself was, How well could a kid develop if you provided him with the perfect environment?"

Marinovich had a very successful high school career, becoming the first freshman to start a varsity high school football game in Orange County.

He began his career at Mater Dei High School, a large Catholic high school in Santa Ana, alma mater of quarterbacks such as Matt Barkley, and Heisman Trophy winners Matt Leinart, John Huarte, and Bryce Young.

Despite throwing for nearly 4,400 yards and 34 touchdowns in his two years at Mater Dei, Marinovich transferred to Mission Viejo's Capistrano Valley High School due to his parents' divorce.

Once there, Marinovich broke the all-time Orange County passing record and later the national high school record by passing for 9,914 yards, including 2,477 his senior year.

Todd Marvin Marinovich (born Marvin Scott Marinovich; July 4, 1969) is an American former professional football player who was a quarterback in the National Football League (NFL) (Los Angeles Raiders), Canadian Football League (CFL) (Winnipeg Blue Bombers, BC Lions), and Arena Football League (AFL) (Los Angeles Avengers).

He played college football for the USC Trojans.

Marinovich is known for the well-documented, intense focus of his training as a young athlete and for his brief career upon reaching the professional leagues that was cut short primarily because of his addiction to drugs.

Marinovich grew up on the Balboa Peninsula of Newport Beach, California.

He received numerous honors, including being named a Parade All-American, the National High School Coaches Association's offensive player of the year, the Dial Award for the national high school scholar-athlete of the year in 1987, and the Touchdown Club's national high school player of the year.

Marinovich's unique development led to growing media attention.

In January 1988, he appeared on the cover of California magazine with the headline "."

Robo Quarterback became a nickname for Marinovich in the popular media, a condition that persisted long after the situation that drove it.

In February Sports Illustrated published an article, titled "Bred To Be A Superstar", that discussed his unique upbringing under his father who wanted to turn his son into the "perfect quarterback".

The article declared Marinovich "America's first test-tube athlete", and discussed how his mother encouraged his interest in art, music, and classical Hollywood cinema while banning cartoons as too violent.

His father assembled a team of advisers to tutor him on every facet of the game.

The article stated that:

"He has never eaten a Big Mac or an Oreo or a Ding Dong. When he went to birthday parties as a kid, he would take his own cake and ice cream to avoid sugar and refined white flour. He would eat homemade catsup, prepared with honey. He did consume beef but not the kind injected with hormones. He ate only unprocessed dairy products. He teethed on frozen kidney and liver. When Todd was one month old, Marv was already working on his son's physical conditioning. He stretched his hamstrings. Pushups were next. Marv invented a game in which Todd would try to lift a medicine ball onto a kitchen counter. Marv also put him on a balance beam. Both activities grew easier when Todd learned to walk. 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.""

Long after Marinovich's professional career had ended, an ESPN columnist named the elder Marinovich one of history's "worst sports fathers".

Regardless, the Sports Illustrated article was incorrect about his son's self-control.

During high school, he started drinking in after-game parties and smoked marijuana daily.

His use of marijuana grew to the point that he would meet with a group of friends—athletes, skaters, surfers, and musicians—every day before school to share a bong before classes in what they nicknamed "Zero Period".

Having previously dealt with social anxiety, Marinovich found marijuana relaxed him and did not affect him later during sporting events.

The rumors of his use spread to opposing fans, however, who taunted him with chants of "Marijuana-vich" during basketball.

His parents divorced around the time he transferred high schools, and he lived in a small apartment with his father for his final two high school seasons.

Marinovich enjoyed the period, noting: "Probably the best part of my childhood was me and Marv's relationship my junior and senior years. After the divorce, he really loosened up. It was a bachelor pad. We were both dating."

Almost every major college program recruited Marinovich who, as a high school freshman, began getting letters from Stanford.

Despite the family connections to USC he was uncertain whether he fit the program's offense.

After a positive visit, however, Marinovich chose the university over recent national champions BYU and Miami, as well as Arizona State, Stanford, and Washington.

Marinovich took his college selection seriously, noting: "This is the biggest decision of my life. It means not only where I will play football, but most likely, who I will marry, who my best friends for life will be, and where I will live. It means everything. And the one thing I know for sure is I'm too young to make this kind of decision by myself."

Marinovich entered USC as a Fine Arts major and redshirted the 1988 season behind Rodney Peete.

Already under intense pressure as a high school prospect, the combination of high expectation and the many new temptations that were prohibited under his strict upbringing soon overwhelmed him.

He was torn between embracing the freedom and following his father's teachings, noting that "I'm finally away from my dad telling me everything to do. And I've got to say I have taken advantage of it. Full advantage. He keeps telling me, 'Come on, you've got the rest of your life to fool around. Not now.' I know he's right. But there are a lot of distractions at SC."