Marinovich Project: Documentary Shows the Immense Pressure on Youth Athletes

ESPN Films produced yet another eye-capturing story Saturday night this time about Todd Marinovich and the way he was raised to be a football player.

I’ve never seen a father go that far in producing a “perfect” football player, but it did open my eyes to the fact that there is way too much pressure on youth athletes.

Marv Marinovich, Todd’s father, created a monster basically from the cradle. He was doing calf exercises with Todd when he was an infant. That’s just silly.

He wanted to create the perfect football player instead of allowing his son to have a normal life. What happened? Marinovich finally received an opportunity to be somewhat free in high school, and he used that time to experience things that harmed his body like drugs.

Hopefully there were parents that had the opportunity to watch the film. Let’s hope they take notes.

I’ve never heard of a father pushing a child at a young age like this, but I have seen fathers push their children to different levels than I’m accustomed to seeing.

Go to a youth sport and see for yourself. It’s truly amazing. What seems like a fun, active sport for children can easily turn into something more important than anything—winning.

We wonder where people become poor sports. The amount of pressure of winning gets put on a whole other level because of the amplitude of winning or losing.

Youth sports shouldn’t be about that. It should be about children getting involved in activities, bettering their craft and exercising.

Once you open the door of one team winning and another losing, a whole new can of worms spills onto the table. Actually, I’ve been at a flag football game in the past two years that started to get rowdy with the parents on the sidelines. The kids were seven, eight or nine years old. That’s unacceptable.

This video is clearly put on by Little League, but it gives you more of an idea of just how severe some of the pressures from parents can be. If they need to make a commercial, you know it’s bad.

It is entirely possible that children can end up like Marinovich. Instead of drugs, it could be steroids or an alcohol problem.

There is so much desire for youth athletes to be the best. Let’s just take a step back and let them live their childhood with good sportsmanship and flat-out enjoyment for the game.