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Paid leave? Petrino should just leave
Published: 4/6/2012 10:28 AM
Last Modified: 4/6/2012 10:28 AM

But he wins...

Yes, he does. But take a step back and understand that doesn’t give a coach the freedom to behave badly.

Arkansas football coach Bobby Petrino was involved in a weekend motorcycle crash. (Let’s leave the motorcycle riding to Billy Jack, but that’s another subject.) Initially, Petrino lied about details, which is par for the course.

While coaching at Louisville, Petrino had a supposedly clandestine meeting with some folks who were trying to hire him at Auburn. He lied to reporters (so what) and lied to his athletic director (oops!) until the Louisville Courier-Journal produced documents about the plane trip forced him to ‘fess up.

“I’m a young coach and I made a mistake,” Petrino said then.

I’m sure Petrino tells his players they have to learn from mistakes. He obviously didn’t learn from his.

After the crash, Petrino fibbed when talking to reporters and his boss. Then a document -- this time a police report -- “motivated” him to be more truthful about the crash.

Same problem, new alibi.

“I have been in constant pain, medicated and the circumstances involving the wreck have come out in bits and pieces,” Petrino said in a statement that was issued Thursday.

Petrino also confirmed that someone -- a 25-year-old female -- he hired was on the motorcycle ride with him. He ‘fessed up that he had an “inappropriate relationship” with the employee.

(Just throwing this in: If Petrino was a “Seinfeld” cast member, he would have been George Costanza, who, after an office indiscretion said, “Is there something wrong with that, because I plead ignorance. If I would have known there was something wrong with that, I never would have done that.”)

Pat Forde of Yahoo! Sports used to work for ESPN. Before that, he was among Louisville Courier-Journal reporters who confronted Petrino with the “smoking gun” document regarding the Auburn trip. While at ESPN, Forde wrote this when Petrino was hired at Arkansas: “Even in a profession rife with dishonest posturing, Petrino is singularly mercenary. Loyalty, allegiance, commitment and honesty are foreign concepts to him. It must be a sad existence.

Continued Forde, “I apologize to Alabama’s Nick Saban. Last year I named him president of the Liar’s Club. He’s been impeached and replaced by the disingenuous drifter (Petrino).”

Arkansas athletic director Jeff Long announced Thursday night that Petrino has been placed on paid administrative leave. That’s a few words too many. Petrino should just leave.

I’m sure Arkansas fans, boosters and administrators are weighing whether they want to part company with a coach who is 21-5 over the last two seasons. Razorback football is a huge source of pride in the state and no one who calls the Hogs wants to lose the feel-good vibe that has been generated by Petrino’s teams.

But here’s some breaking news: Petrino wasn’t the first coach to win at Arkansas and he won’t be the last. There are plenty of people who can win with that program’s resources. Find one of those people and plug them in with this mandate: act right, or else.

Can you imagine the precedent that will be set if Petrino stays? It will only be considered a “first strike” -- and not a termination-worthy offense -- if any other coach on campus engages in an inappropriate relationship with an employee and then lies about it to the boss.

This decision would be easier for Arkansas if Petrino was coming off a pair of 6-6 seasons. And that’s a shame. Wins aren’t the issue here. We should all be weary of coaches who believe that winning gives them immunity to act however they please. Financially set and morally bankrupt (and I’m not saying Petrino is morally bankrupt) is a pitiful combination.

Let’s stop being enablers. We all deserve better. We should require leaders of men -- and that’s what college football coaches are -- to be both civil (belligerence seems to be in fashion) and good civilians.


Reader Comments 9 Total
But What Do I Know? (11 months ago)
And perhaps his most serious lies were told to the players, staff, management and owners of the Atlanta Falcons. To anyone not familiar with that situation look it up. I'm not sure who should be president of the Liars Club. But I look forward to the next election when they start running negative ads about their opponent.
mgsooner13 (11 months ago)
If Petrino is fired, the female employee (who is engaged to be married in June) should be fired as well. She is just as culpable.
colhi64 (11 months ago)
Let's all band together and throw some stones at this morally bankrupt individual.... Jimmie you have first toss...
rightway (11 months ago)
Arkansas is at the plate, the count is full and the pitch on the way....

I think their football will take 3 steps back, and in 5 years will be back to where they are now, a step or two behind LSU and Alabama.

Meanwhile Patrino will have just completed his 4th season at Cincy. He obviously took a year off to realign his moral compass.

Dr. Strangelove (11 months ago)
I can sympathize with him. Over the years I've had a number of girls on the back of a variety of motorcycles. Thankfully I was able to keep it on the road.
re-elect Hoover (11 months ago)
thank God it wasn't any of the OU or OSU coaches
Nazarene Apologist (11 months ago)
Arkansas finished 4th in the nation last year. He could have murdered Mother Thersea and a paid suspension and written apology was all the punishment he would get in Arkansas, after all, she was almost a 100 years old.
P.OswaldBoone (11 months ago)
At least it wasn't his first Cousin on the back.
Ol City Boy (11 months ago)
I agree Mr T, and Mrs. Petrino should lawyer-up.

The U of A nor Mrs. P have someone they can trust.
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Tulsa World sports writer Jimmie Tramel is a former class president at Locust Grove High School. He graduated magna cum laude from Northeastern State University with a journalism degree and, while attending college, was sports editor of the Pryor Daily Times. He joined the Tulsa World on Oct. 17, 1989, the same day an earthquake struck the World Series. He is the OSU basketball beat writer and a columnist and feature writer during football season. In 2007, he wrote a book about Oklahoma State football with former Cowboy coach Pat Jones.

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