Bobby Petrino: On leave, in trouble and maybe out of a job
Uneasy rider: Bobby Petrino speaks after the crash but before the confession. (AP photo)
Bobby Petrino has been placed on administrative leave. Ordinarily this is a prelude to getting fired, but Bobby Petrino coaches football in the SEC. And we’re about to see if Arkansas places a higher premium on winning football games — which Petrino has — than on cornball stuff like family values.
Speaking of which: Bobby Petrino first said he’d spent Sunday with his family at a lake before hopping on his motorcycle. If he had, he wouldn’t be on administrative leave.
Turns out Petrino hadn’t been riding alone. Turns out, via the police report, that Petrino had been accompanied by a 25-year-old woman whom he’d just hired as the football team’s “student-athlete development coordinator.” (Memo to would-be cover-uppers: Police reports are pesky things.) Turns out Petrino lied in his first public statements, same as he’d lied to Arthur Blank when he told the Falcons’ owner, “You’ve got yourself a coach” — 27 hours before surfacing in Fayetteville, Ark.
Petrino has since acknowledged an “inappropriate relationship.” Though he, oddly, described it as “previous.” Does that mean it has ended? That true romance took a hike the instant he lost control of the bike? Ah, the vagaries of the human heart.
Of greater concern to athletic director Jeff Long is surely this: Did the coach hire the 25-year-old Jessica Dorrell — a press release was issued just last week — only because of her expertise in “student-athlete development”? (She’d previously been an Arkansas volleyball player and a fundraiser for the Razorback Foundation.) In announcing her appointment, Petrino is quoted as saying: “[Dorrell] is familiar with what the University of Arkansas can offer.”
(In other news, Dorrell reportedly is engaged to the director of operations for the Arkansas swimming and diving team. The wedding date is set for June 9.)
Long moved to put Petrino on leave Thursday night, only hours after the police report was made public and the coach finally came clean to his boss. But there is, in athletic departments housing a major football program, a sort of reverse pecking order: The AD is technically in charge, but the football coach is the bigger deal.
Of all people, Long shouldn’t have been blindsided by such duplicity. He handled the search that resulted in Petrino standing in Fayetteville calling the Hogs on a Tuesday night after coaching the Falcons on a Monday. Rumors of Petrino’s departure had been swirling before the game, prompting Blank to confront Petrino, who offered his handshake assurance he’d be staying. This prompted Blank to tell newsmen he looked forward to the Falcons moving boldly forward under “CEO Bobby Petrino.”
The next day: See ya later, CEO.
The same Petrino infamously interviewed for an Auburn job that wasn’t open in November 2003. He denied any contact with Auburn officials until reporters from the Courier-Journal offered documentation of a private plane registered to the Montgomery bank controlled by the toxic Tigers booster Bobby Lowder landing in Sellersburg, Ind., which sits across the Ohio River from Louisville, where Petrino was then coaching. The backlash was such that Auburn’s president and AD wound up resigning.
But Petrino? He kept coaching the Cardinals, leading them to an 11-1 season in 2004 and an Orange Bowl victory in 2006. He’d signed a 10-year contract to remain at Louisville despite many more flirtations with other schools/teams. Then, in January 2007, he left to coach the Falcons. That lasted 13 games, 10 of them losses. (The Falcons were without Michael Vick.) Then he split for the Ozarks.
In sum: Petrino has long been a selfish jerk, but people keep hiring him because he wins. When it comes to coaches, administrators tend to develop cognitive dissonance: “He’s a jerk, but he’s a winning jerk.”
Long has pledged to conduct a review, but let’s note again: This AD hired Petrino, baggage and all, and has seen him win 21 games over the past two seasons. We’re about to see if Petrino, his belatedly admitted indiscretion aside, can deploy his won-lost record as the ultimate defense. We’re about to see if a bad guy gets to keep his job just because he’s a good coach.
By Mark Bradley
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412 comments Add your comment
frankinstein
April 6th, 2012
5:49 pm
Does anybody think it’s coincidence that he’s wearing his Sugar Bowl hat, just in case anybody in Fayetteville needs reminding?
macrotech
April 6th, 2012
5:50 pm
COMPLETELY devoid of ANY integrity….sad….so sad!
evil empire
April 6th, 2012
5:50 pm
he won’t come back to georgia because of the way he was treated here…i can see him in knoxville or gainesville next year if those two don’t turn it around…
Character counts
April 6th, 2012
5:57 pm
Winning trumps infidelity. It’s Akansas for goodness sakes. They elected and reelected a Governor who was widely known to have been carrying on with women who weren’t his wife. Yet, Bill Clinton continued to win re-election, hence fidelity is meaningless to Arkansans. Does anyone honestly believe they will fire the football coach who has brought winning back to Hog country, who has won the games he has and has Ark finishing in the Top 5? Yeah, right!! Think again. The young woman will receive a very nice “parting financial” gift right after she signs a “keep your mouth shut” agreement as she leaves town for a new job in another state compliments of wealthy boosters. Between the Wal-Mart, Tyson Chicken and Jerry Jones group she will have a job, out of sight.
Character counts
April 6th, 2012
5:58 pm
Enter your comments here
JSS
April 6th, 2012
6:03 pm
“It’s Akansas for goodness sakes. They elected and reelected a Governor who was widely known to have been carrying on with women who weren’t his wife.”
You mean like George Wallace, Herman Talmedge, and gasp… Strom Thurmond? I would go down the Louisiana list but that would take a couple of pages… No hypocrisy like Southern hypocrisy as Mary Chestnutt put it!
evil empire
April 6th, 2012
6:10 pm
i wish we could re-elect clinton today…alot better than our choices now…
Hurt Kurbstreit
April 6th, 2012
6:13 pm
Once a sleazebag always a sleazebag. Justice is being served. Sooeey Pig!
italian_29
April 6th, 2012
6:31 pm
For the posters that are comparing this to Don Leeburn and Suzanne Youclan’s affair, that is completely different. Suzanne wasn’t Don’s boss or half his age. Apples and Oranges.
Mike G
April 6th, 2012
6:41 pm
To all you Petrino supporters who dumped all over Houston Nutt, I only have one thing to say: Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha,Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha.
NCBravesFan
April 6th, 2012
6:48 pm
I doubt he gets fired personally. If he does go, the guy that hired him should go too – not like Petrino’s warts haven’t been well-documented over time.
HogDawg
April 6th, 2012
6:48 pm
Maybe he should have had a van….!!!!!
ny surgeon
April 6th, 2012
6:50 pm
This guy is a scumbag and just created the ultimate “trifecta” He will most likely get fired from his job, his wife will divorce him and he is at least partly responsible for destroying the engagement of Dorrell.
This gutless immoral Petrino needs to find religion fast and he is a marked man in Atlanta so he should probably go hide in a cave somewhere. Mike Zimmer was right wan he said that Petrino is a “gutless MFer”.
Ol' Timer
April 6th, 2012
6:50 pm
There’s no fool like an ol’ fool and no ol’ fool like a rich ol’ fool who’s convinced that the 25 year old beauty thinks he’s awesome!
Now when it comes to driving a motorcycle, a young person would have a hard time keeping that thing upright with a sweet young thing squeezing on his latissimus — but it’s dang near impossible for an ol’ dude.
Whoops!
Arse meet asphalt!!
Mark Sanford Ex-S.C. Gov.
April 6th, 2012
6:52 pm
I don’t see anything wrong with what he did.
BILLDAWG
April 6th, 2012
6:53 pm
Is Frank Browles still alive? What does he think about this?
Old Dawg
April 6th, 2012
6:55 pm
Bogart Man: you flunked comprehension. MB has the engagement and date in his column.
As for this pathetic person, he’s too low to coach in Arena football. No disrespect to Arena football.
larry
April 6th, 2012
7:00 pm
Part of the story unnoticed by many…. she is a university employee because he hired her after her graduation into a do nothing position…Someone needs to research her salary and get this guy for fraud on the university as well as the obvious other details. He is such a good looking guy I can see why a 26 year old would be smitten!!!!
ny surgeon
April 6th, 2012
7:04 pm
so lets add up the damages:
Petrino divorce(he just destroyed his wires love and his family’s trust)
wrecked engagement(feel sorry for Dorrell’s fiancé Josh Morgan)
University has set itself up for lawsuits(qualified candidates not getting Dorrells job)
recruits lied to by Petrino
players lied to by Petrino
Petrino’s bosses lied to by Petrino
The Arkansas leadership should have interviewed Arthur Blank, the Atlanta coaches(especially Mike Zimmer) and the Atlanta players in 2007_they would have told Long et al what a lying, phony, gutless bastard Petrino is.
This guy should be fired and never hired again!
Stanley
April 6th, 2012
7:11 pm
Motorcycle safety tip #1: Never ride a motorcycle with a beautiful girl in your lap.
Dawg48
April 6th, 2012
7:13 pm
Is that road rash on his nose? Or did that girl have something funky funky down below?
ny surgeon
April 6th, 2012
7:14 pm
FIRE PETRINO!
Hire Mike Zimmer!
Damon Evans
April 6th, 2012
7:23 pm
Bless his heart! Couldn’t of happened to a better guy!
Disgusted
April 6th, 2012
7:25 pm
“I am so happy to have a coach like Mark Richt represent my school.”
You got that right BG,. I would rather have Ray Goff represent my school and lose than a rotten human being like Petrnocchio.
Mark Richt will get it done for us, I believe in him. He has another ten yrs left here (I hope).
hahahahahaha
April 6th, 2012
7:28 pm
The only thing that gives me more pleasure than Petrino getting his comeuppance is seeing that scumbag Tiger Woods struggle while blaming everyone else for his problems. The similarities are striking. I have zero sympathy for the blonde he’s been servicing as well. Petrino is a rat but she knew he was married. I hope her finace has already said his goodbyes. The true victims are Petrino’s wife and kids.
Jim
April 6th, 2012
7:30 pm
Well Bobby looks pretty banged up in the pictures that have been released to date so if she was actually on the bike with him when he laid it down then what does she look like now? Is she bruised and scraped up as he is – if not then more than likely she was NOT on the bike with him.
dmr
April 6th, 2012
7:32 pm
evil empire should receive the “CLUELESS” award. You don’t understand the hate of Bobby P.? What are you, 12 years old? Petrino is a liar. He lied and backstabbed his way to trying to get the Auburn job. He lied to his employers in Atlanta when interviewing for the Arkansas job. He lied to get this girl on Arkansas’ payroll. He lied to the police and the Administration. He lied to his wife. Falcons’ players that are the nicest of people including Warrick Dunn and Algae Crumpler couldn’t stand the man. KARMA! GOT YOU BOBBY!
Bradley put a sock in it
April 6th, 2012
7:43 pm
Bradley it sounds like you maybe a little jealous you couldn’t get a nice looking companion like that to ride with you. Don’t be the one to judge others we have someone to do that.
Rick James
April 6th, 2012
7:47 pm
@GTBob
That might be a stretch because of how much Atlanta already hates him but you never know. Being known as a good football coach is a very powerful thing. It can reshape opinions and morals and make you tolerate someone in the hope of more wins. I don’t think UGA fans would be that sad if Petrino replaced Richt one day.
—————————————–
After Damon Evans? Not a chance..
Puketrino
April 6th, 2012
7:47 pm
Being one of the biggest Falcons fans around, the only thing that could be better about Bobby Puketrino’s head in the above picture is that if it was detached from his body !!!! What a piece of work !!! Arrogant ahole like Payton and hopefully will get what’s coming to him.
Joe Tess Fish House
April 6th, 2012
8:04 pm
I still dong get why U all r still mad at patrino.
Puketrino
April 6th, 2012
8:04 pm
Now Arkansas State Police are looking further into the accident. Puketrino and his girlfriend told a person that stopped to help them not to call 911. The Ark. State Police Captain that took him to the hospital is also being questioned.
Zach
April 6th, 2012
8:18 pm
I don’t see this thing ending well for Bobby Petrino. What was he thinking having another woman riding with him on his motorcycle. That just looks bad on him.
Puketrino
April 6th, 2012
8:19 pm
Hog Wyld is an IDIOT !!!
Lakedawg
April 6th, 2012
8:25 pm
Hey evil—You better check Petrino record vs Coach Richt before spouting who is the better coach. Also take a look at their total coaching record and then tell me again who is the better coach?
SiddyBoy
April 6th, 2012
8:41 pm
Bobby “the pig” Petrino looks more like a medium rare steak rather than the hog he is.
Gwinnett Fred
April 6th, 2012
8:43 pm
Well, now we know why he left the Falcons so fast.
None of the cheerleaders would have anything to do with him!!!!
Hog Wyld
April 6th, 2012
8:49 pm
You wanna go?
Hog Wyld must be a Razorback
April 6th, 2012
8:52 pm
Check the verbage and spelling. The SEC at it’s finest!!
)
April 6th, 2012
8:53 pm
Enter your comments here
tom
April 6th, 2012
8:55 pm
I feel bad for his family. Unlike many wives of famous people who have strayed I hope she leaves him and destroys him financially. Too many have stood by their unfaithful men. For the kids. Bullshit. They are all better off without him. The University will show honor and get respect for doing the rightr thing. Fire him.
randy marsh
April 6th, 2012
8:56 pm
If Arkansas fires Petrino where will they find another man-pig looking head coach that doubles as a mascot?
DawgNole
April 6th, 2012
9:00 pm
Tom G (Independent – Viet Vet)
April 6th, 2012
1:12 pm
Joe TeshFishHouse- I have missed talking with you man, where you been? Down at the White House working for Barrack? Hopefully that is just a temp job ending soon?
____________________
You mean the guy can actually talk? Whodathunk it?
1966 Atlanta Falcon
April 6th, 2012
9:12 pm
hope they cann that @ss, never wanted him here, never wanted him with the club.
Stanley
April 6th, 2012
9:28 pm
It’s obvious from these comments that Bobby Petrino couldn’t win a popularity contest in Georgia.
Bobby Petrino to His Wife
April 6th, 2012
9:32 pm
But honey, there was no hanky panky. I was just trying to teach her how to ride a motorcycle.
Richt and Petrino
April 6th, 2012
9:36 pm
That girl is not pretty. Just because she’s blond doesn’t make her pretty. There are a lot of ugly blonds. And people are saying Richt wouldn’t be caught in that position. Of course, not! Women don’t like losers and chumps.
DawgNole
April 6th, 2012
9:44 pm
Disgusted
April 6th, 2012
2:11 pm
Say what you may about the recent playoff failures, the Falcon fans have never had it so good. Mike Smith has not been that bad . . . .
______________________
That perspective right there is why ATL is known nationwide as “Losersville.”
Bobby Latrine-Oh
April 6th, 2012
9:56 pm
Arkansas HAS to fire him. HAS to. I’m not going to argue that morality doesn’t matter like a lot of the dipsticks here, but what he has effectively done is turn Arkansas into a complete laughingstock. The one cardinal sin in college football is you can’t turn your program into a punchline. Some guys do it by losing and not being able to coach their way out of a paper bag (Ray Goff), others do it by molesting small boys in the shower (apparently the entire state of Pennsylvania), still others do it by cheating their butts off (Pete Carroll, Jim Tressel). Damon Evans and Bobby Petrino do it by having endless opposing fans throw red panties at them or wear neck braces to every away game.
Mark my words….Arkansas will be a laughingstock. Every opposing male fan will show up at a game with a neck brace, with his girlfriend in a blonde wig and a bird beak fake nose. This will cost Arkansas big $$$$ even if they win, because wearing Arkansas gear around will leave you open to mockery. How many Penn State sweat shirts are you seeing lately?
They already had their problems with Houston’s Nutts and now it’s with Bobby’s Nutts. As another poster put it “Bobby went and barbecued his cute little face.”(read in Roscoe P. Coltrane voice and you won’t stop laughing for 5 minutes).
DawgNole
April 6th, 2012
10:25 pm
Fulmer Cup reality
April 6th, 2012
2:22 pm
Fulmer Cup often comes up on these blogs no matter what the topic . . . . TCU has an overwhelming lead, and will likely keep it . . . .
______________________
What does that “C” stand for? Oh, the irony of it all.