A Father Lives His Dreams : Raiders: Marinovich followed charted path to become quarterback of his dad’s teams.

Sometime after 1 p.m. Sunday at the Coliseum, the Raiders will break out of their huddle for the first time to face the Cleveland Browns.

A tall figure with red hair sticking out from under his helmet will hunch over center and a crowd in excess of 40,000 will cheer.

Todd Marinovich will start barking signals in his new role as starting quarterback.

It will be the beginning of an era.

But one member of that crowd will stare down, full of emotion, and see another figure--same face, younger body, different uniform.

Marv Marinovich was there at the real beginning of this era.

He was there that night when his son, Todd, a freshman at Santa Ana Mater Dei High, hunched over center as the starter for the varsity against Fountain Valley.

Classes hadn’t even started for the younger Marinovich, but there he was, leading the football team in the season opener.

And leading it well.

Marinovich was the dominant figure in that game.

After the final second ticked away that night, Marv, who helped out with the coaching, walked off the field saying to himself, “Holy criminy. What have we got here?”

Marinovich figured right then that his son was someone special, someone who might be able to dominate at any level he played.

“It was not that he had the physical or mental superiority,” Marv said. “It was a certain calm. His nervous system gives him the ability to play under pressure. When he gets in that mental zone of his, he gets a look in his eyes. A lot of players get into tough situations and you can see the pressure in their eyes. You look in his eyes and you see that he loves it.

“The senior linemen that night told me Todd was unbelievable in the huddle. That’s the same thing you hear from the Raiders.”

It might have been a father’s pride speaking, but Marinovich knows a thing or two about football players. He was one himself, as a lineman with the USC Trojans, and then the Raiders for a year.

He later spent eight years working for the Raiders, as a scout and in another role in which he physically tested team prospects.

But when it came to drafting Todd in 1991, Marv wasn’t involved.

“Al (Davis) saw something in players that scouts often didn’t see,” the elder Marinovich said. “He has an innate feel for this kind of thing. I was sure Al would see this in Todd. And he did.”

Marinovich, 53, and the owner of an Orange County training facility, has stayed backstage as his son has moved into the spotlight.

But that hasn’t altered his image as some sort of villain in this success story, the ultimate stage dad who drove his son from the moment of birth to realize his own expectations.

Anybody familiar with the Todd Marinovich story knows the anecdotes, knows how Todd was given a football in his crib, was not allowed to eat the ice cream and cake at friends’ birthday parties and had 13 experts molding him from childhood.

Everybody knows the label that was put on him in those formative years, “Robo QB.”

It just wasn’t that way, insists Marv.

“Contrary to what people read, I was not a cold, demanding person,” he said. “It was a real healthy relationship.

“It’s not like I planted a seed and hoped it would turn into a great player. It’s not like I was trying to produce an NFL quarterback so that I could retire, live on the beach and have him buy me a big car. I wouldn’t take anything if it was offered. That had nothing to do with it.

“My greatest enjoyment was just being there all those years and helping to contribute, just the day-to-day thing of being together.”

Marinovich says he knows what motivates his critics.

“It must be jealousy,” he said. “They didn’t get time to be with their kids, so they think it’s sick to spend so much time with your son.”

As Todd grew, so did the relationship. Marv was always testing his son, always pushing him to do a little more.

When they would run, Marv would go just a little faster than Todd. When they would do pushups or sit-ups, Marv would always do a few more than his son to leave a new challenge.

But as Todd became bigger and stronger, it became tougher and tougher to stay ahead of him.

“After a while, I didn’t want to do it any more,” Marv said.

When Todd finally reached USC, Marv was thrilled beyond words.

“It was a great feeling of accomplishment, watching him practice on the same field I did, watching him wear those same colors,” he said.

And now again with the silver and black as it was with the cardinal and gold, Marv watches his son perform in the same colors he once did.

It may be the first case of a father and son playing for the same college and the same NFL team.

But it hasn’t been all good times. Todd has had his troubles off the field, getting into hot water--deep hot water--with Coach Larry Smith while at USC and drug problems with the law.

“Those were tough times,” the elder Marinovich said. “Some kids go through it at an earlier stage. Todd was mature in some areas and not so mature in others. He was late maturing. To say I wasn’t concerned would not be the truth. But I think those problems have made him stronger.”

It was the only time in their relationship that Marv and Todd were not close, when outside influences drove Todd from his father and everything he had taught him.

Marv hopes those problems are over.

He won’t be real close to Todd on Sunday, but he won’t be far away, either. He will be in a Coliseum seat, cheering on the new Raider quarterback.

Just as he always dreamed he would.