I Am A Program
We were jumping around Proverbs in Sunday School today, and got to Proverbs 22:6:
Train a child in the way he should go,
and when he is old he will not turn from it.
Our leader emphasized the word he, as in "the way he should go." Not the way that someone else thinks that he should go, but the way that he should go.
This tickled something in the recesses of my brain. I asked, "Who was that football player who was pushed by his dad and didn't last that long in football?"
The answer, from several sources: Todd Marinovich. Here's the story, as of 2001:
Todd Marinovich was born on the Fourth of July and programmed to be a great quarterback. His father Marv, a former Oakland Raiders offensive lineman and assistant coach, drilled him from infancy with NFL stardom as the goal. For a while, Todd responded. The 1987 All-USA Offensive Player of the Year racked up a national-record 9,194 passing yards while at Capistrano Valley High in Mission Viejo, Calif. His decision to play college ball at Southern California was preordained: His dad was co-captain of USC's 1962 national champion....
Marinovich led the Trojans to the Rose Bowl as a redshirt freshman, but by his sophomore year, there were bugs in the program. The young man who never had touched a Big Mac or watched cartoons was arrested on drug charges and suspended from the team twice.
Marv Marinovich said at the time that his son's problems were just part of growing up and "Todd will come back with a vengeance."...
He left USC, entered the 1991 NFL draft and was a first-round pick of the Raiders. He signed a $2.27 million, three-year contract, became a starter in his rookie year and played in one postseason game.
His continuing drug problems ended his NFL career the next season. He has since bounced around the Canadian Football League and, most recently, the Arena League....
He spent 90 days in an Orange County, Calif., jail in 1998 for a marijuana cultivation conviction and was arrested [in 2000] after Los Angeles police found heroin in a car he was driving. He was placed on probation but violated the terms and was ordered into a drug treatment program....
Here's a recent update:
5:45 p.m. September 13, 2004
IRVINE – Former Southern California and Raiders quarterback Todd Marinovich is serving a 90-day jail term stemming from an arrest in Newport Beach last month for possessing methamphetamine, officials said Monday.
Marinovich pleaded guilty last week to a felony count of possessing a controlled substance and two misdemeanor counts of resisting arrest and the unauthorized possession of hypodermic needles....
Marinovich has been jailed since his arrest Aug. 28 after officers saw him skateboarding in a prohibited area, said Sgt. Mark Hamilton of the Newport Beach Police Department. When officers caught up with him, they allegedly found methamphetamine and three syringes....
Marinovich was on probation for a 2001 conviction for felony heroin possession and was supposed to have served 80 days in jail stemming from a 2003 arrest in Los Angeles County. He had not served that time and was ordered to serve both sentences concurrently, a court clerk said....
However, let me remind you - skateboarding is not a crime.
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