Todd Marinovich last played in the NFL in 1992. He last played any professional football in 2001. And now, at age 48, he’s attempting a comeback.

According to The Desert Sun, Marinovich will suit up for the SoCal Coyotes of the World Developmental Football League this fall, a year after serving as an assistant coach on the team.

Last we heard from Marinovich, once one of the most promising quarterback prospects in the country, he was arrested after being found naked in a stranger’s backyard in possession of meth. That was only last August, but he claims he’s been sober ever since.

Via the Desert Sun:

“I can’t really take credit for anything,” he said to 30 or so assembled media, friends and family at Vue Grille and Bar in Indian Wells. “The only thing that I was given was the gift of desperation, which it takes to get started. And I am a work in progress. God works in ways that I never really saw until I moved to the desert. I had no idea what I was getting myself into. I just knew I needed help and that I couldn’t do it alone. And this area out here has a beautiful recovery community, which I jumped into.”

 As for returning to football…

“It’s the greatest game on the planet and I’ve been away from it for so long, and I can’t think of anything more fun,” he said. “Recovery has changed every aspect of my life and made it better so why wouldn’t that carry over to the football field?”

Marinovich is best known for the “Robo Quarterback” persona he earned as a teenager in Southern California, where his famously overbearing father attempted to mold him into the perfect passer. Marinovich had a rocky career at USC but was still selected in the first round of the 1991 NFL Draft. His wound up playing only eight games in the NFL, completing 104 of 205 passes for 1,102 yards, with five touchdowns and nine interceptions.

He later played in the Canadian Football League and the Arena Football League but struggled with injuries and drugs throughout. He was arrested several times and once lacerated his thumb on a crack pipe during halftime of a game.

But now he’s apparently sober and back playing football. It seems highly unlikely that this comeback attempt will last very long, but hey, good for him giving it a shot.

Via the Desert Sun, here’s Marinovich talking about his comeback.

About Alex Putterman

Alex is a writer and editor for The Comeback and Awful Announcing. He has written for The Atlantic, VICE Sports, MLB.com, SI.com and more. He is a proud alum of Northwestern University and The Daily Northwestern. You can find him on Twitter @AlexPutterman.