'I Should Have Been Dead'

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Quaranta grew up in Highlandtown, a diverse, working-class section of Baltimore east of the polished Inner Harbor and trendy Fells Point. His father, Tommy, helps manage an apartment complex and his mother, Lisa, is a hostess on the suite level at Oriole Park at Camden Yards and M&T Bank Stadium. Santino is the eldest of four sons in a family with deep Italian roots.

Soccer was his passion from a young age, and after playing two seasons at Archbishop Curley High School in Baltimore, he entered an elite residency program in Bradenton, Fla. About 18 months later, after deciding to turn pro at age 16, Quaranta was selected by United in the first round (eighth overall) of the 2001 MLS draft. Until Freddy Adu arrived three years later at age 14, Quaranta was the youngest player in league history.

A gifted attacking player suited to play in midfield or on the front line, he mixed strength and speed with ball skills and a finishing touch. In his rookie year, 10 of his 16 appearances were starts and his five goals were third most on the team.

But over the next three seasons, injuries limited him to 24 league games and four goals, and during United's MLS Cup season in 2004, he appeared in only one match. The following year, he regained his health and contributed five goals and a career-high five assists.

His addiction, however, deepened.

The pressure of being a young pro athlete seemed to contribute to his demise.

"I sacrificed high school, I sacrificed weekends because I was away -- the normal things I didn't get to do when I was growing up," he said. "So when I signed a contract, who was going to tell me what to do? Who was going to guide me? I made it happen, I made the sacrifices, I am going to enjoy it and spend my money. . . . I was doomed from the start."

After practice, he would be the first to leave the locker room and head to White Marsh, northeast of Baltimore, where he lived with his wife, Petrina, and daughter, Olivia, born in 2003 when he was 18. On the way home, however, he would stop in Baltimore to buy painkillers. "I needed it to get me through the day," said Quaranta, who got married in 2005.

Some of his teammates recognized changes in Quaranta but were unaware of his serious drug use. He arrived late for practices, wore the wrong outfits for road trips, missed medical appointments and eventually ditched the team-sponsored tutoring sessions necessary to earn a high school diploma.

"Tino had a wonderful knack for telling you what you wanted to hear," said midfielder Ben Olsen, a member of United since 1998 and the only MLS player Quaranta communicated with while in rehab. "He is as charismatic and loving as a person could be. You wanted to believe him. He was like a con man: He knew exactly what to say and when to say it. . . . A lot of us brushed it off, unfortunately, on him being a kid. And maybe that's why he got away with it."

Team President Kevin Payne also recognized changes in Quaranta, whose dark secrets contradicted a colorful and engaging personality.