LOS ANGELES — Vintage college football tickets and field passes are the main medium for Todd Marinovich’s latest art piece. They belonged to his grandfather, and he plans to collage them and layer his impressionistic painting style on top.
“I’m stoked to have them,” Marinovich said. “I don’t know why he kept them, but now I’ve got them. It’s so much history when you’re looking at different stadiums that they’re playing in – different teams, different years.”
The piece is on pause, however, as Marinovich once again plunges into his own history. But this time, it’s on his own terms.
Marinovich was the top player in his high school recruiting class and went on to be a Rose Bowl-winning quarterback at USC before becoming the first-round NFL draft pick of the then-Oakland Raiders. His early life is well-documented, thanks to the intense training methods that his father, Marv, used to develop his football abilities.
Todd Marinovich was also arrested a dozen times, incarcerated five times and has been to rehab seven times. Drug abuse has derailed his life repeatedly.
His new memoir, “Marinovich: Outside the Lines in Football, Art, and Addiction”, is allowing him to take ownership of it all.
Former USC and NFL quarterback Todd Marinovich, whose on- and off-field highs and lows have been well-documented, plunges into his history on his terms in a new memoir. (Matt Holt Books)“It’s his story. And what he’s told is true,” Pat Harlow, a former USC teammate of Marinovich’s, said.
Harlow and fellow Trojan Aaron Emanuel came to support Marinovich at a book signing outside the USC campus bookstore prior to Saturday’s game against Michigan. The teammates embraced each other as a steady flow of USC football fans lined up for signatures.
Marinovich, 56, greeted them with equal warmth, even when he agreed to a fan’s request to recreate the iconic photo in which he gave a UCLA player the middle finger.
“That’s my affinity for him,” Emanuel said, “is that he’s just a nice person. He was good, too. He had a lot of pressure on his shoulders and, obviously, there’s books about the struggles. And we all have struggles. Todd’s struggles were put in front of the world.”
Marinovich teamed up with Lizzy Wright, the wife of former Oakland Raiders teammate Steve Wright, for his memoir. Steve had co-written his own memoir with Lizzy and had encouraged Marinovich to do the same.
Marinovich and Wright finished the book in nine months, which is remarkably fast by book-writing standards. Lizzy was living in Malibu and Marinovich was in Hawaii, so the latter relayed memories and conversations multiple times a week over the phone.
“Truth is freedom,” Wright said. “When you are able to speak your truth, there’s a liberation that happens. And so, after decades of other people telling a story, for him to tell his truth is very liberating.”
Marinovich’s sobriety is a day-to-day journey – he actually measures it in hours rather than years when asked about it. He continues to create art and do Zoom interviews about his book while at his permanent residence in Hawaii, but he is also making in-person appearances to promote it.
Former USC and NFL quarterback Todd Marinovich, left, poses for a photo with a fan during a book signing for his new memoir on Saturday at USC. (Photo by Haley Sawyer, SCNG staff)Saturday’s book signing was his first time back on campus in recent memory, but Marinovich came to practices while Pete Carroll was the head coach (2001-2009) and he attends at least one football game each year.
He went to the game that night and saw the Trojans overtake Michigan, 31-13, alongside his former teammates and his son, Baron, who was attending his first USC game.
Todd’s memories of his own battles against Michigan are told through an artist’s lens.
“By far the coolest helmets ever, and the whole story behind it is rad,” Marinovich said. “And I always loved SC’s white uniforms, so we got to wear that in the Rose Bowl, and Michigan wore their navies, and it just looked beautiful on the Rose Bowl field. It was really surreal, that whole experience.”
After countless headlines documenting the highs and lows of his entire life, Marinovich is finally telling his story how he wants it told – and being who he wants to be.
USC quarterback Todd Marinovich raises the ball over his head as he scores the team's first touchdown against Michigan in the Rose Bowl game on Jan. 1, 1990, in Pasadena. (AP Photo/Bob Galbraith)Related Articles
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