Marinovich

2025 PenCraft Seasonal Book Award Winner in Sports

"A brutal look at the tragedy of addiction . . . Details the one-time prodigy’s athletic highs in high school and college and his subsequent lows." —Booklist

One of the most misunderstood professional athletes of his generation, America’s “Robo Quarterback” finally sets the record straight, exposing his childhood trauma, battle with addiction, and path toward self-acceptance with honesty and humility.

For years, the national media has been left unchecked for its careless, incomplete, and often inaccurate portrayal of Todd Marinovich’s meteoric rise to fame, cataclysmic collapse, and unsteady path to self-realization.

Now, for the first time, Todd tells his story in his own words, and nothing is off limits.

Marinovich dives into the making of America’s first “test-tube athlete,” detailing Todd’s upbringing under his father’s unconventional care and his early entry into elite athletics along with its relentless spotlight. Readers will examine the inner workings of the mythical “Robo Quarterback,” but they will also meet an artist and free spirit who just happened to be one of the nation’s best football players. Todd holds nothing back as he tells of his jaw-dropping exploits both on and off the football field, sharing how the merciless grip of addiction unraveled his life even as his success in football reached dream-worthy heights.

As the profit machine of youth sports reaches a crescendo and a mental health epidemic rages, Todd’s inspiring path to healing and purpose offers desperately needed hope. Marinovich is more than a soul-baring account of one man’s life: it is a call to embrace one’s truth, to defy external pressures, and to cultivate the resilience necessary to recover from inevitable setbacks. Ultimately, Todd’s shocking life experience is hard-won proof that the most powerful force within each of us is love.