Rivalry Is Lost, and Much More

No two high school quarterbacks in the country were recruited any harder than Bret Johnson and Todd Marinovich.

They were born a few months apart, grew up a few miles apart, and dazzled everybody with their play.

As high school players in 1987, Johnson passed for 2,098 yards and 22 touchdowns; Marinovich accumulated 2,477 yards and 18 touchdowns.

College coaches across the country drooled at the thought of either of these two teen-agers engineering their offenses.

One, Johnson, is more of a play-option specialist, and Marinovich is what is often referred to as a “classic” or “pro-type” passer, a guy who drops back into the pocket and lets it fly. One is right-handed, the other left-handed.

Yet they have much in common. Both of their fathers have been coaches. Both have known considerable pressure to perform, on and off the field.

And both have been successful as students, Johnson maintaining a 3.44 grade-point average--on a 4.0 scale--in high school, Marinovich a 3.4. Both were listed on the California Football Scholar Squad. Todd won the 1988 Washington Touchdown Club’s Dial award as the nation’s top scholar-athlete.

When these two outstanding individuals chose the universities they wished to attend, it was a happy day for UCLA and USC, rivals a few miles apart, just like the quarterbacks’ old high schools.

A splendid rivalry was about to become even more intense, and the only potential problem appeared to be keeping them from turning pro before graduation.

As of today, however, neither Johnson nor Marinovich is starting at quarterback for UCLA or USC. Here it is, the middle of the football season, and neither one is playing, and neither one is injured.

Johnson transferred to Michigan State because he believed the coaches unfairly relieved him of his starting assignment without justification.

Marinovich has been suspended for at least one week for ditching classes, and evidently was in danger of being demoted to second-string anyway.

Is there any connection here?

I don’t know. If nothing else, maybe it just goes to show us once again how something such as football can interfere with someone’s everyday life.

Expectations and pressure can weigh down anyone of any age. Johnson and Marinovich are barely out of their teens, but naturally want to be treated as men. They don’t want to be thought of as schoolboys.

Later, when their mistakes are pointed out to them, somebody invariably will demand to know how anybody could be so harsh toward such a young kid.

I think it has become pretty clear that being a star quarterback isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. For a while you’re a big man on campus, but the coach wants you to practice, the professors want you to study, the agents want you to be aware of them, the reporters want you to do interviews, the fans in the stands want you to do magic, and the bill collectors want you to pay up, not caring whether the NCAA prohibits you in your 20s from earning a decent wage.

Maybe women are coming around all the time, wanting your phone number. Maybe guys are coming around, wanting your autograph, wanting you to attend their fraternity parties, wanting you to take a drink or two because what the coach doesn’t know won’t hurt him.

Maybe the coach wants you to spend an extra hour in the workout room, or an extra hour studying the plays, or an extra hour in conference with some other coach.

Maybe you get tired of it.

Or maybe you get spoiled. You don’t want to earn the starting job; you want it handed to you. Or you don’t want to come to class; you only came to school to play ball.

A few weeks ago, in addressing Bret Johnson’s particular case, it was suggested here that he behaved immaturely by leaving school just because he was no longer the starting quarterback. There is nothing more to say on this matter, except that it is not a personal thing; Bret is wished nothing but the best in the pursuit of his goals at Michigan State and beyond.

Fair being fair, though, it becomes necessary to take a look at this latest development with Marinovich.

As a coach, Larry Smith cannot find it easy to suspend a quarterback who has appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated and is considered such a sure thing for the NFL that a fear exists he will not linger in college beyond his sophomore year.

Marinovich has been held in such esteem that he was made a favorite for the Heisman Trophy after one game. He also has been feeling such pressure that after a couple of weeks, he issued a personal injunction against anybody bringing up the subject of the Heisman in his presence.

I can’t imagine what it has been like to be Todd Marinovich, trying simultaneously to be what he wants to be and what he is expected to be.

As an athlete, Todd was nurtured to the extent that he couldn’t even eat the same food his friends ate, and was made to endure a nickname, “Robo-QB,” that was intended at first to be flattering, but upon reflection seemed insulting. It isn’t surprising that creative pursuits such as art and music appeal to Marinovich; he is a painter, and once told an interviewer that he would rather be a rock star than an NFL quarterback.

For USC’s coach, suspending Marinovich for cutting class probably was the easy part; who wouldn’t understand an action like that? The hard part was explaining why Todd’s begging out of practice with an earache would have been grounds for giving away his starting job to Shane Foley, proving that Smith meant what he said: ‘You don’t practice, you don’t play.”

There can be no double standard, even for a star. Most quarterbacks would have been benched had they played the way Marinovich played against Arizona last week. But it isn’t his play that concerns his coach; it’s his attitude. As long as a kid’s in school, he has to learn.