Playing in his first professional football game since 2000, Todd Marinovich threw seven touchdown passes in leading the SoCal Coyotes to a 73-0 win over the California Sharks in a World Developmental Football League game Saturday night, USA Today reports.

Marinovich, who was an assistant coach with the Coyotes last season, completed 19 of 28 pass attempts for 262 yards but also tossed two interceptions.

Marinovich was highly publicized as a football prodigy even before he stepped onto the USC campus to quarterback the Trojans in 1990, but his life has been beset by drug problems and run-ins with the law ever since.

"I'm just blessed with standing on the planet," he said after Saturday’s game. "And then playing football? It's just ... I'm speechless."


Marinovich left USC after two seasons, was selected by the Raiders in the first round of the 1991 NFL Draft, but last only two seasons in the NFL. He went on to play for the L.A. Avengers in the Arena Football League, but drug and legal problems continued to follow him. Just last August, he was arrested after being found naked in another person’s backyard and in possession of meth, marijuana, syringes and a pipe. In March, he pled guilty to five misdemeanors related to that incident.

Raiders owner Mark Davis was among the 250-300 fans in attendance for Saturday’s Sharks-Coyotes game at Shadow Hills High School in Indio, Calif. Davis said seeing Marinovich in the SoCal’s white, silver, red and blue uniforms "made me think I was watching Tom Brady."