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Former USC, Raiders QB Found Naked In Someone's Backyard With Pot
Marinovich with the Trojans in 1990. (Photo by Stephen Wade/Getty Images)
Todd Marinovich, former quarterback for USC and the L.A. Raiders, was arrested after trespassing onto a backyard in Irvine, reports the Los Angeles Daily News. Police discovered him naked, and later found that he was in possession of marijuana and drug paraphernalia.
The incident was reported at around 9 p.m. on Friday. A resident called police to say that Marinovich, who is an Irvine resident, was walking naked on a paved bike and walking path. Police later found him in the backyard of a residence.
This incident is the latest in Marinovich's (very public) struggle with substance abuse. In 1990, he was arrested for cocaine possession a month after playing in the Sun Bowl for USC. In 1997, he was charged with growing marijuana in his Dana Point residence. In 2000, while playing for the L.A. Avengers of the Arena Football League, he was arrested for heroin possession.
Marinovich is regarded as one of the more famous NFL draft busts in the '90s. After a successful college football career—he'd led the Trojans to a Rose Bowl victory in 1990—he floundered at the pro-level. The Raiders had selected him in the first round of the 1991 draft (before hall-of-famer Brett Favre), but promptly dropped him after a couple of tepid seasons.
In 2011's "The Marinovich Project," an entry in ESPN's 30 for 30 documentary series, Marinovich said that he'd made peace with his career, and that he was devoting himself to painting.
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