Arrest ‘bump in the road’

Southern California native and former Los Angeles Raiders and USC quarterback Todd Marinovich said from jail Friday that his most recent drug-related incarceration is a bump in the road to sobriety.

“Each time that I’ve made an effort at it, I’ve had more fun and stayed clean longer so why stop now because of this bump in the road. It’s no different than the bump five years ago,” Marinovich said.

“I don’t know any other way to see it. It’s just like throwing an interception

the best people are going to throw interceptions. It’s about dealing with the next possession, the next breath.”

From childhood Marinovich was groomed for football. A one-time Heisman Trophy candidate for USC, the-then Los Angeles Raiders picked him up in the first round of the draft in 1991.

Considered a draft-bust by many, Marinovich later played for the Los Angeles Avengers in the Arena Football League. He was released in 2001.

Marinovich was arrested Sunday in Newport Beach for felony possession of a controlled substance and misdemeanor counts of unauthorized possession of a hypodermic needle and resisting a police officer.

“Every rehab that I’ve been in, and I’ve been in countless ones, has been positive in some way or another. And each time that I’ve gone, I’ve put together a longer length of sobriety,” he said.

“I’m good about not beating myself up for it,” Marinovich said of his multiple legal transgressions and relapses. “I think it’s part of my make-up. It’s something that made me successful on the field. Always knowing that if I am breathing we have a chance to pull it out or I have a chance to turn it around.”

Marinovich has been involved in about nine criminal cases, many of which were drug-related, according to the Orange County District Attorney’s Office.

His path to this arrest started roughly a month ago, when Marinovich said he first relapsed after nearly a year of sobriety.

“Sometimes it just happens. I’ll get into a situation where I shouldn’t be. And not all the time do I succumb to it, but the times that I have...” Marinovich said, not completing the thought.