Posted on 01/18/2019 9:17:32 PM PST by OddLane
His name is a parenting epithet. Overcoach your kid, get too excited about a touchdown or a home run or a goal, and you might hear it, even in jest: You're just like Marv Marinovich! Look at Marv Marinovich over here! The story is part of American lore, the ultimate in Sports Dad Goes Overboard. BRED TO BE A SUPERSTAR, read the Feb. 22, 1988, Sports Illustrated headline. And the subhead: Todd Marinovich was groomed from infancy to be a top-notch quarterback.
Infancy was not hyperbole. America's first test-tube athlete, they called Todd. The Robo QB. Marv stretched his son's hamstrings at one month old, and had him teething on frozen kidney and trying to lift medicine balls before he could walk. Marv used Eastern Bloc training methods and consulted as many as 13 experts, including biochemists and psychologists, to build his quarterback. Most famously, as SI wrote, Todd was the least 1980s child of the '80s: "He has never eaten a Big Mac or an Oreo or a Ding Dong."
(Excerpt) Read more at si.com ...
Famous, or infamous, story. And yet parents deciding their boy should be a girl, or vice-versa, is all the rage now. With no blowback.
Just ... Damn.
Wow, what a story; he never had a chance to be normal. Poor guy is looking rough for 50.
I think I vaguely remember this from the time.
I remember well when Todd Marinovich led the USC Trojans in the shootout with UCLA at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena on November 17, 1990. When it was over, Cardinal and Gold held sway over the Sons of Westwood, 45-42.
Horrible writing style. I can’t read that crap.
I remember watching a Raiders game Todd played in. He threw a great pass, a 3rd and long I think.
The camera showed Marv in the stands acting like Todd had just singlehandedly won the Superbowl.
I knew then something was wrong.
Damned sad way to go through life.
Take it from a 32 years sober alcoholic Todd.
One day at a time.
Just one day at a time.
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