Marv Marinovich had one goal: build the perfect athlete. He started before Todd was even born.
 
Todd's mother was placed on a strict diet during pregnancy — no processed food, no white sugar, no artificial ingredients. When Todd was an infant, his crib was equipped with physical coordination toys. By the time he could walk, he was lifting weights, stretching, and running drills. He may be the first human being who could bear crawl forty yards before he could walk. Marv tracked every nap, every meal, every rep. The nickname "Robo QB" wasn't a compliment. It was a description.
 
And on paper, it worked. Todd Marinovich broke high school records, transferred schools — his parents legally separated to claim a new address — and arrived at USC as one of the top recruits in the nation. He led the Trojans to a Rose Bowl win over Michigan. He was selected 24th overall in the 1991 NFL Draft by the LA Raiders, drafted ahead of Brett Favre. Al Davis said, until the day he died, that the Raiders picked the more talented quarterback.
 
But Todd also never ate a Big Mac. Never tasted an Oreo. Never had birthday cake at his own birthday parties. He had no coping mechanisms, no room to fail, no framework for anything outside the rigid structure Marv had built around him. By high school, he was smoking marijuana daily and drinking at postgame parties. He left USC early after a cocaine arrest. The night before the 1991 NFL Draft, he was using heroin.
 
His Raiders career lasted eight regular season games and one playoff game. He failed three drug tests. He used a teammate's urine to beat one of them — the teammate had been drinking heavily. He was cut. He bounced to the CFL, the Arena Football League, a 2017 semi-pro comeback game where he went 19-for-28 with seven touchdowns at age 46. He was arrested roughly nine times by Orange County authorities alone — cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine, marijuana — over thirty years.
 
And yet.
 
This is the first episode of the Halls of Mediocrity that ends better than it started. Because Todd Marinovich did eventually mature. He and Marv fully reconciled and became best friends in the last two decades of Marv's life. When Marv developed Alzheimer's, Todd became his primary caregiver. He handled the facility moves, managed the medical decisions, showed up every visit. Marv frequently forgot Todd's name toward the end — but Todd says he always knew.
 
Marv Marinovich died in December 2020. Todd Marinovich is now living in Hawaii, painting, coaching young quarterbacks — this time with an emphasis on emotional development, not just physical optimization. In August 2025, he released a memoir: *Marinovich: Outside the Lines in Football, Art and Addiction*. In it, he pushes back on the idea that Marv ruined him, saying the addiction is his own responsibility.
 
Kevin and Jeff are candid about Marv's failures. But they're also honest about the historian's fallacy — measuring people from the past by the moral standards of today. Marv was a pioneer by any training standard. He trained Troy Polamalu. He trained B.J. Penn. What he never figured out how to do was be a father. He got there eventually. So did Todd.
 
This is Robo QB.

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Intro Music:
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Outro Music:
Music by Marching Music -The Thunderer By John Philip Sousa | Royalty-free Music - Pixabay

In honor of the Sunny episode dropping tonight, Kevin and Jeff take a detour into WWE and WWF history — specifically, ChatGPT's definitive ranking of the greatest wrestlers who never won a world title in the WWE or WWF.
 
There are a few problems with the list.
 
First: it only has nine names. ChatGPT was asked for ten and delivered nine. Second: Roddy Piper — Hot Rod, the man who was number one on every other version of this list Kevin and Jeff have seen — is nowhere on it. Third: Sting, who wrestled approximately two matches in the WWE, is ranked number one. Terry Funk isn't there. The Funk Brothers aren't there. Ravishing Rick Rude isn't there. Paul Orndorff isn't there.
 
Kevin and Jeff work through the list anyway. Sting at #1 (debatable, given his WWE career lasted roughly one WrestleMania). Dusty Rhodes at #2 — the American Dream, Sweet Sapphire, and a Vince McMahon booking relationship that people still argue about. Mr. Perfect at #3. Ricky "The Dragon" Steamboat at #4, who put on arguably one of the greatest WrestleMania matches ever against Randy Savage at WrestleMania III. Owen Hart at #5. The Million Dollar Man Ted DiBiase — a technicality, given he purchased a title that was immediately vacated. Big Van Vader, who had an NFL career with the LA Rams before wrestling, whose WWE run got derailed by a certain someone complaining backstage. Goldust. And Jerry "The King" Lawler, known considerably more for his commentary than any realistic world title run.
 
They fix the list at the end. Roddy Piper goes in at #10. ChatGPT gets a note in the feedback box.
 
A bonus episode, a bad AI list, and two guys who clearly watched too much wrestling growing up. This is the Halls of Mediocrity.

Intro Music:
Music by Marching Music -Guide Right -By John Philip Sousa | Royalty-free Music - Pixabay

Outro Music:
Music by Marching Music -The Thunderer By John Philip Sousa | Royalty-free Music - Pixabay

Tammy Sytch was a pre-med student at the University of Tennessee. She was smart, driven, and by all early accounts headed toward a career that would help people. Then she started dating a professional wrestler named Chris Candido, and the trajectory of her entire life changed.

She became Sunny: the most downloaded woman on the internet in 1996, the Pro Wrestling Illustrated Manager of the Year, and the woman Jim Cornette said was better on the microphone than any of the men he had. When the WWF came calling in 1995, Vince McMahon reportedly didn't want Chris Candido without her. She was the act. He came with her.

Kevin argues she was the beta test for the Attitude Era - the experiment that proved to Vince McMahon he could push the envelope, because audiences didn't flinch when he hypersexualized her. She became AOL's most downloaded woman. She refused a Playboy offer. And for a brief window, she was the most recognizable woman in sports entertainment.

Then it all came apart.

The painkiller addiction. The nine-month affair with Shawn Michaels while committed to Candido, which nearly everyone knew about except Candido himself. The backstage war with Sable, who took the Playboy cover Sunny had turned down. The July 1998 release from WWE. ECW - what Kevin calls "the trailer park version of both WWF and WCW" - and an arrest for violating a restraining order filed by her own mother. WCW, where Eric Bischoff later said the drug use was so bad that people had to sweep the locker room for used needles before events.

Chris Candido broke both bones in his leg at TNA Lockdown on April 24th, 2005. Four days later, he was gone. He was 33. The one stable relationship she had in her adult life, the man who stayed with her through every collapse, was suddenly not there.

She was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2011 and appeared to have finally turned a corner. Two years later, she publicly trashed the WWE wellness program that had funded her rehabilitation multiple times and became the first and only talent in company history to be formally cut off from it.

On March 25th, 2022, Tammy Sytch drove through the Ormond Beach area of Florida with a blood alcohol content roughly four times the legal limit and ran into a car stopped at a traffic light. She killed 75-year-old Julian Lassiter. There was an open vodka bottle in the car.

In November 2023, she was sentenced to 17.5 years in prison and 8 years of probation. She will be in her sixties before she sees the outside.

Jim Cornette, the man who discovered her, said he didn't want to pile on. He wanted to remember her when she wasn't a complete disaster. But then she killed a man sitting at a traffic light. He couldn't defend her anymore.

Kevin and Jeff cover the full arc: Smoky Mountain Wrestling, the Body Donnas, WrestleMania, the Shawn Michaels affair, ECW, Chris Candido's death, the Hall of Fame, and five arrests in 32 days, and what the culture of professional wrestling did to people who had no business being in it.

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Intro Music:
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Outro Music:
Music by Marching Music -The Thunderer By John Philip Sousa | Royalty-free Music - Pixabay

Chad Curtis was the 1,155th player chosen in the 1989 MLB Draft. Forty-fifth round. Three colleges. By any conventional measure, he had no business playing in the major leagues. He played for ten years. He won two World Series rings with the New York Yankees. He hit a walk-off home run in the 1999 World Series.

He also told Rod Carew, Hall of Famer, career .328 hitter, one of the most respected men in baseball, that he wasn't going to listen to him. He said the entire team had decided not to speak to Jim Gray after the Pete Rose interview, a claim every other Yankee immediately denied. He picked a fight in the Texas Rangers' weight room over a teammate's music. He used a Derek Jeter bench-clearing brawl as an opportunity to publicly lecture about teammate conduct. Every team he played for found the same thing: once Curtis got comfortable, the preaching started, the moral superiority came out, and his act wore out its welcome. He played for six teams in ten years.

After retiring in 2001, Curtis returned to West Michigan and began volunteering at Lakewood High School in Barry County, Michigan as a strength and conditioning trainer — with direct, unsupervised access to student athletes.

Between 2011 and 2012, prosecutors alleged Curtis used that access to sexually abuse multiple underage female students. He was arraigned in Barry County District Court on five counts of criminal sexual conduct. A sixth count was added in August 2012. At trial in August 2013, three of his victims testified. The jury convicted him on all six counts.

At sentencing, Curtis used his statement to blame his victims, profess his Christian faith, and suggest he and one of the victims could write a book together. Barry County Circuit Court Judge Amy McDowell sentenced him and stated from the bench that he was "a threat to any community you get into." Prosecutor Julie Pratt called his statement "the most selfish, self-serving, victim-blaming statement I've heard in my entire career as a prosecutor."

Curtis was sentenced to seven to fifteen years. He served the minimum, released September 22, 2020 at age 52. In the civil litigation that followed, four victims sued Lakewood Public Schools and settled for $575,000. A federal judge ordered Curtis to pay one victim $1.8 million in damages, a judgment he and his ex-wife Candace immediately began working to evade by transferring assets and filing for bankruptcy. The bankruptcy was denied.

Kevin and Jeff cover the full arc - the 45th round, the World Series rings, the clubhouse feuds, and everything that followed, and what the pattern running through all of it says about who Chad Curtis really was.

Note: The specific details of the crimes are a matter of public record but are not described in this episode out of respect for the victims, who were minors.

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Intro Music:
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Outro Music:
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Terrion Arnold was the 24th overall pick in the 2024 NFL Draft. He was supposed to anchor the Detroit Lions' secondary. Instead, he walked into the Orient Road Jail in Tampa to surrender on eight felony counts - including armed robbery, kidnapping, and conspiracy charges that carry a maximum penalty of life in prison.

It started in early February: over $250,000 in cash and personal belongings stolen from an Airbnb Arnold was renting in Largo, Florida. Instead of letting law enforcement handle it, prosecutors allege Arnold decided to become the general manager of his own vigilante justice operation.

The problem: the men he targeted were later confirmed by police to be completely innocent. They had nothing to do with the original theft.

That didn't stop what prosecutors describe as a highly calculated honeypot scheme. Two women were allegedly directed by Arnold to lure the targets to a Tampa apartment. When three teenagers arrived, they weren't met with a party. They were met by multiple armed associates. They were trapped, held at gunpoint, beaten, pistol whipped, and had a firearm shoved in their mouth. Their jewelry and electronics were stolen.

Then the modern twist: prosecutors allege the entire assault was live streamed via FaceTime directly to Arnold while he was driving to the location.

The defense - the "general manager defense" - is that Arnold was never physically inside the apartment. Detectives admit they can't place him at the immediate scene. But Florida's principal theory of law states that if you plan, direct, or facilitate a crime, you are as legally guilty as the person pulling the trigger. Prosecutor Kevin Riley told the court: it doesn't get off the ground without Terrion Arnold.

Two co-defendants, Jasmine Randazzo and Ariana Delval, have already flipped, providing sworn testimony that Arnold was the mastermind, gave the orders, and drove the getaway vehicle.

On June 29th, Arnold appeared in Hillsborough County in a red jumpsuit. Judge Christopher Sabella set bond at $1 million, no ankle monitor, with a note that sports media would serve as his paparazzi monitor. Nick Saban sent a formal character reference. Arnold posted $100,000 and was out by Tuesday morning. Hours later, the Detroit Lions released him.

Dead cap hit: $8.475 million. The forfeitable breach clause. The NFLPA fight. What the FaceTime evidence likely means. Kevin and Jeff break down everything that's known so far - as Lions fans who watched this unfold in real time.

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Intro Music:
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Outro Music:
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Thirty active Minnesota Vikings players. Two luxury houseboats on Lake Minnetonka. Eighty to a hundred sex workers flown in from Atlanta and Florida. High school and college kids working the charter crew. A woman named Kathy Howe whose lawn got used as a restroom on the way to the dock. Forty-five minutes on the water before the captains turned around. And when the boats came back in, the police were already waiting, because Kathy Howe had already called them.

Total fines from Hennepin County: $5,000. Daunte Culpepper paid zero. The head coach was fined more for scalping his Super Bowl tickets the year before than the players were fined for any of this.

Kevin and Jeff cover the full story of the 2005 Minnesota Vikings Love Boat Scandal - from the rookie money that bankrolled it, to the attorney's courtroom description of what happened on those boats, to the fines, to Fred Smoot asking, "why was that ever a story?" on Reddit ten years later.

The organization: Fred Smoot and Bryant McKinney didn't want "local talent" because local talent would start rumors. So, they brought in workers from out of state, which nearly added a trafficking charge on top of everything else.

The execution: Al and Alma's Charter Cruises. Two boats. The captains turned around after 45 minutes. Some of the crew were high school kids. The attorney's description of what occurred in the common areas is entered into the record.

The legal aftermath: Smoot and McKinney each fined $1,000 by Hennepin County. Culpepper's charges dismissed entirely, a judge ruled there was insufficient evidence crew members were directly offended by his specific actions. NFL fines were higher, but Mike Tice was still fined more for scalping Super Bowl tickets than any of his players were fined for this.

The quotes: Mewelde Moore's "Sex? Come on, I'm engaged" defense. Fred Smoot's "please don't turn on the black light." Smoot on Roger Goodell: "I'd have been banished from the league."

The footnotes: Darren Sharper - free safety on that 2005 roster, later agreed to an 18-year federal sentence for rape and sex trafficking across multiple states. Zygi Wilf bought the team instead of Vince McMahon. Brock Lesnar tried out for the Vikings the year before. And one of the boats was eventually sold, refurbished, and operated as a tour boat — complete with framed Culpepper and McKinney jerseys on the walls.

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Intro Music:
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Outro Music:
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Darko Miličić was number one. Everyone gets that. But can you name the pitcher drafted third overall who never threw a single inning in the majors? The closer drafted first overall with a 100 mph fastball who threw an octopus? The Heisman winner Joe Theismann said the Lions would be committing a travesty if they passed on — who still couldn't survive the NFL?

Welcome to training camp. Kevin and Jeff work through the top ten Detroit sports busts of all time — all sports, all eras, and a few honorable mentions that will genuinely hurt if you lived through them.

The list covers:

 Darko Miličić: The #2 pick in the 2003 NBA Draft, selected one spot after LeBron James. The most famous bust in modern draft history, and somehow not even the most painful entry on this list.

Charles Rogers: Detroit Lions receiver. Three seasons. Broken collarbone twice. Off-field problems. Gone before 25.

Jeff Okudah: #3 overall to the Detroit Lions out of Ohio State. Injury-shortened tenure. Kevin doesn't think he belongs this high.

Matt Anderson: A rare #1 overall pick in MLB — a closer with a legendary 100 mph fastball. The arm didn't hold.

Kyle Sleeth: #3 overall in the 2003 MLB Draft out of Wake Forest. Projected to anchor Detroit's rotation. Underwent Tommy John surgery. Never pitched a single inning in the majors.

Andre Ware: The Heisman Trophy winner from the University of Houston. Joe Theismann said it would be a travesty if the Lions passed on him. They didn't. It was anyway.

Reggie Rogers: #7 overall to the Detroit Lions in 1987. Two sacks in 11 games. Convicted of negligent homicide after a motor vehicle accident at the end of his rookie year.

Filip Zadina: Detroit Red Wings. #6 overall in 2018. Never became what he was supposed to be.

Mike Williams: Detroit Lions receiver. Kevin thinks he should be higher.

Honorable mentions: Eric Ebron (the tight end Detroit could have used on Aaron Donald or Mike Evans), Chuck Long (the Iowa quarterback who never translated), Jahvid Best (injuries, not failure — Kevin pushes back on this one), and Terrion Arnold, who didn't make this list yet — but give it a year.

Four episodes in the can. July 14th is coming.

Opening Theme:
Music by Trygve Larsen from Pixabay

Closing Theme:
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Patrick Kane punched a cab driver over 20 cents. Pat McAfee was arrested shirtless and soaking wet at 2am trying to break into the wrong car. One guy was arrested over 100 times. Another had no pants, no underwear, nothing. Five clues. Five athletes. Can you name them?

The Halls of Mediocrity launches July 14th, the second show from the Archive Podcast Network. In this preview clip, Kevin and his brother Jeff run a training camp drill: five clues, a running clock, and Jeff doing his best to identify the perp before time runs out.

Clue #1 - NFL Running Back: A career backup who never started more than four games in a season, arrested at Barry University for breaking into a dorm room and using a woman's laundry basket as a toilet.

Clue #2 - NHL, Three-Time Stanley Cup Champion: One of the most recognizable names in the sport, arrested in Buffalo at 5am for punching a cab driver in the face over a 20-cent fare dispute.

Clue #3 - MLB Gold Glove Second Baseman: A .254 career hitter pulled over in Tampa with seven cans of beer, a gram of cocaine, and leaving the scene of an accident. Police could not administer a field sobriety test at the side of the road. You'll understand why when you hear the clue.

Clue #4 - NBA Backup Point Guard: Played for six teams in ten years. Never averaged more than eight points a game. Arrested over one hundred times in his life. Best known as a Phoenix Sun.

Clue #5 - NFL Punter: Found shirtless, soaking wet, at 2am, trying to break into a car that wasn't his. Told police he thought it was. Now one of the most prominent media personalities in sports.

Jeff gets four out of five. Kevin gives him a solid B. July 14th is coming.

THE HALLS OF MEDIOCRITY - LAUNCHING JULY 14TH
Sports. True crime. Athletes who had everything and threw it away.
Find it wherever you get your podcasts.

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OJ Simpson is number one. Lance Armstrong is number four. And somehow Aaron Hernandez didn't make the top ten. The Halls of Mediocrity launches July 14th — and this is how we do research.

The Halls of Mediocrity is a new show from the Archive Podcast Network covering the athletes whose careers ranged from average to genuinely great — and whose lives off the field ranged from embarrassing to criminal to legitimately unforgivable. Hosted by brothers Kevin and Jeff Hall, the show takes a hard look at the falls from grace that sports fans never quite got over, and some they probably forgot about entirely.

In this trailer, Kevin and Jeff work through a quiz: the top 10 falls from grace in professional sports history, according to one article they found on the internet. A few are obvious. A few are genuinely surprising. And at least two of them belong higher on the list. The conversation covers OJ Simpson (#1), Joe Paterno (#2), Pete Rose (#3), Lance Armstrong (#4), Ben Johnson (#5), Marion Jones (#6), Tiger Woods (#7), Tonya Harding (#8), Michael Vick (#9), and Roger Clemens (#10) — plus a dishonorable mentions list featuring Aaron Hernandez, Oscar Pistorius, Chris Benoit, Jerry Sandusky, Gilbert Arenas, Lenny Dykstra, Ben Roethlisberger, and a notable omission that both of them find genuinely baffling.

(How is Mike Tyson not in the top ten?)

This is the show. Sports, crime, and the athletes who had everything and lit it ablaze!

The Halls of Mediocrity — part of the Archive Podcast Network
Midnight Mystery Archive

Opening Theme:
Music by Trygve Larsen from Pixabay

Closing Theme:
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Welcome to The Halls of Mediocrity! The podcast that finally gives the backup quarterbacks, the .248 hitters, and the can't-miss prospects who missed their moment in the spotlight.

Brothers Kevin and Jeff Hall launch the newest show on the Archive Podcast Network with a conversation that goes exactly where you'd expect. From the 1984 Detroit Tigers' unsung heroes to the Bad Boy Pistons, from Dennis Rodman's loaded shotguns in the Palace parking lot to the traveling circus of 1980s professional wrestling, this trailer is a taste of what's coming.

The Hall brothers aren't just here to talk stats. A .252 average isn't going to blow anybody's socks off — but a couple of DUIs and a crack cocaine conviction? Now you've got a show.

Every episode profiles a professional athlete whose career, post-career, or both went spectacularly sideways. The mediocre, the overhyped, the forgotten, and the ones who somehow found their way back. It's going to be fun. It's going to be serious. And some of it is going to be genuinely hard to hear.

But rest assured — it will never be boring.

Subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts. Part of the Archive Podcast Network.

Opening Music: Music by Trygve Larsen from Pixabay

Closing Music: Music by Trygve Larsen from Pixabay