Esquire story on Todd Marinovich

I was responding to the "what's to be gained by locking them up" part of the question. Part of what's to be gained is protecting the public from the crimes that stem from drug addiction. That would still be true whether the drugs were legal or not, because as you say, there would still be people who couldn't afford them legally.

 

This piece made me wonder if perhaps Marv hasn't gotten a bum rap all these years for allegedly ruining the kid's life. Sounds to me like this might be a case of a guy with a genetic predisposition to substance addiction who would've ended up boozin and druggin with or without Marv. That was Todd's own opinion in the story's conclusion, supported by the history of alcoholism on his mom's side.

Plus, it mentioned that mom and grandpa were actually sneaking him McDonald's and pizza as a kid, and he started regularly smoking dope and getting drunk as soon as he was a HS freshman, so sounds like those squeaky clean "RoboQB" stories might've been a bit exagerrated.

Perhaps without Marv he simply would've been your standard anonymous dirt poor junkie, instead of a famous junkie who once played in the NFL and had a multi-million dollar contract.

 

So you can't be bothered to actually read the story, but you still feel compelled to offer a critique?

One that you were 100 percent wrong about, by the way. It's a terrific story. Very well done and certainly not run-of-the-mill. Granted, I only know that because I read it.

 

I used to feel sorrow for Todd and his plight in life. Not any longer. He's FUBAR and it's time that he stopped using excuses for the things that he does. It's also time people stop making excuses for what he does. He's a grown man.

 

The story has always intrigued me, and this brought it together in one, well-researched, comprehensive package.

It was time well spent.

 

Even if the occasional burger did pass his lips, there's no question that Marv kept Todd from having anything approaching a normal childhood, that he was fanatical in the way he groomed the kid almost from the moment of conception to do one thing with his life. Todd might have been genetically predisposed toward addiction, but he also got a giant push in that direction from his old man. I think the author's theory toward the end, which is basically that Todd intentionally partied away his prime football years to escape the pressure to fulfill his father's fantasy, is pretty close to the truth. Not to say that Todd shouldn't be held accountable for his actions as a grown man, but Marv shouldn't be let off the hook, IMO.

 

Doesn't mean that grooming was the cause of addiction derailing his life as an adult.

I'm just taking issue with the way popular opinion has come to just assume it's daddy's fault, there's no real evidence proving that. Let's face it, anybody genetically predisposed to addiction growing up in the LA area during the 80s was bound to find trouble eventually, regardless of how raised. The kid was regularly partying with his friends when he was a 14-year-old frosh living with dad, so it doesn't sound like Marv's controls were all that insanely strict. Hell, for all we know Marv might've postponed his downfall, the unusual childhood at least resulted in him getting to experience being a Rose Bowl hero and rich NFLer before addiction took him down. Not many junkies can say that.

 

Seems like Marv prepared him to be a pro quarterback, but didn't prepare him for anything else: manhood, fatherhood, adulthood. I don't think it's all daddy's fault, but it's pretty clear Marv was only interested in his son turning pro.

Todd's relationship with his father seems odd. It's almost one of dependence.

 

There's rarely any one cause. Addiction, like most human behavior, is some combination of nature and nurture. But it would be quite a stretch to assume that Marv's parenting had nothing to do with Todd's problems. Kid lives under ridiculous restrictions most of his childhood, then goes off the deep end once he gets the slightest freedom. Seems logical to assume there's a connection there.