May 19, 2013

Petrino Acknowledges ‘Inappropriate Relationship’; Placed On Leave

April 5, 2012 by

ESPN.com: Arkansas puts Petrino on leave following crash

Arkansas put football coach Bobby Petrino on paid leave Thursday after he failed to disclose what he described as a “previous inappropriate relationship.”

Also:

Jeff Long (AP Photo/April L. Brown) Jeff Long (AP Photo/April L. Brown) Jeff Long (AP Photo/April L. Brown)

Jeff Long (AP Photo/April L. Brown) Jeff Long (AP Photo/April L. Brown) Jeff Long (AP Photo/April L. Brown)

Filed Under: Arkansas Razorbacks, Football Tagged With:
  • MIZDGB

    Haha typical Arkansas. Looks like DGB made the right choice. MIZ!

    • Hawgfan100

      Just remember: karma is a bitch.

    • Deathpanelist

      DGB chose to play for a man who commited a felony, Pinkel DUI. Petrino commited no crime. Typical Mizzou. Enjoy fifth place in the East.

      • Your Mom

        Pinkel plead guilty to suspicion of DWI; a misdemeanor, not a felony. And at least he was honest about it. Petrino obviously knew his relationship was inappropriate, and he tried to hide it. That’s dishonest. I’m in no way condoning driving while intoxicated, but your comparison and judgments are based solely on your personal bias towards Arkansas. I don’t know what your “Typical Mizzou” comment was supposed to mean, but I’m sure it’s grounded in bitterness from being snubbed by DGB. I would say that Petrino cheating on his wife was “Typical Arkansas”…but since he’s not blood-related to his mistress, I simply cannot.

      • John

        Pinkel’s conduct could have killed me or you. It was veery bad. They should have locked him up for a while. Petrino’s conduct was bad and will even have more ramifications than one can imagine even if he makes a radical change in his life. He hurt his family badly. He bafdly hurt his chances of being believed. Once you make a bad choice, yes forgiveness is out there for you, but it sets off a chain of events in his life and head that may be so very difficult to overcome. That conduct is like a ripple in the ocean that just gets bigger and bigger the farther from its source that it travels. Come on coach, tell me how you are going to take care of my son. How can I believe you? Convince me that you LOVE family more than………Yes, the glamour is certainly off of this coach with a plush contract.

  • Bobo

    Wow. A father of four.

  • Roadhog

    Hog fans are gonna hate BobbyMFPetrino before he gets out of Arkansas. Here is a man with the emotional maturity of one half his age. It has been apparent all along. Falcons fans tried to warn us. He can’t leave soon enough for me.

    • Walking on Sunshine

      Easy there Road…Petrino is not the first man of power to feel like he’s bullet proof.

    • Soupdhog

      He’s also not the first guy to have an inappropriate relationship. Geez.

  • MemphisHog

    It all just makes me feel sick to my stomach. I still don’t really know what to think, but the more I find out the less respect I have. Jeff Long is in a tough tough spot now.

  • Our Lady of Hogalupe

    Oh Jesus. Here come the morally perfect Arkansans, out to point out all the wrongdoings of others. How could he? How could someone do such a horrible thing? And to think, I actually liked this person, because they were winning me football games.

    Please do us all a favor, and shut up. I want the Arkansas football program to win games. I think Petrino will win a lot of games for us. I personally don’t give two sh*ts if he is walking around on his woman. That is his and hers and the family’s problem. I don’t want some preacher who can’t win a damn thing. I want somebody that will win.

    This man took a major spill on his bike that put him in the hospital. While he was there, what did he do? Well, he looked over plays and practice charts. That’s all I care about. The man lives and breathes football, and as long as he keeps the program out of trouble and keeps on winning, what he does with his personal life is little of importance to me, and it should be to you too, unless you like consistently losing the SEC. The ball is in your court Arkansas. What’s your move? Hopefully, it is to come off your high horse and not drive out the one coach who could bring the program to the promise land of WINNING!

    • John

      A morally corrupt coach will give you more problems than you apparently can even visualize. Remember Tigger-two-timer-Woods? There is more spinning around in his head now than footbal like a tall long-legged young thang! It will affect the team unless he and his family can put this to rest by a statement that is believable. I hurt for his wife and children for being thrown into this mess. They did not deserve to be put out to his ridiculous behaviour. But I am he mighty Petrino and the fans have told me repeatedly how SMART I am and I am. So, I am deserving of whatever I want. Football is nothing but a game. Nothing more or less. Its importance is dismal in the scheme of things. This is Arkansas’ opportunity to get out of that bad expensive contract and get some sense back into the program. Go back to flag football without all of this stuff.

      • Our Lady of Hogalupe

        Honestly to me, winning football games is far more important than this man’s moral fiber. I care about the games, I watch all the games, I follow all the news about the team. I don’t follow Petrino’s personal life, so frankly, I don’t care anything about it. I think the comparison to Tiger Woods is no good. I think part of the reason Petrino handled the situation so poorly is because all he cares about and understands is football. He was probably drawing up plays in his head and not paying attention to the road when he crashed. I think he’ll be fine, he might even become more obsessive about football now. I think the university has a good opportunity to keep a great coach while lowering his pay. I say take it, move on, and keep winning.

        • Chris

          Typical hog fan!” I don’t care about the welfare of these young men put in the hands of a corrupt man who not only cheats on his wife and kids but then hires her so that he has his honey hole close to him”. “Hell no! I just want to win football games” “Screw the kids”. Your coacch has no class, and you have no class.

          • Our Lady of Hogalupe

            Nice quotes. Where did you get them? I love when people mix sports and morality. It makes absolutely no sense to me. Sports are about winning a game, and that game, my friends, is not the game of life. And for the record, I don’t think I am a typical Razorbacks fan. I see a whole lot of fans calling for this man’s head because of his questionable morals. From my perspective it is all about winning, when all is said and done the most important way a coach, on this level, affects the youth he leads is in terms of wins and losses, they should be getting their morals from other venues. And last I checked, these are 18-24 year olds, if they don’t know that what Petrino did is morally suspect, then they might need a little more guidance than their head coach. Morals and sports. Hah!

  • buzzards luck

    @Our Lady…can’t say I disagree on what I want for my head coach but you have to admit, Petrino has shown himself to be a man of little character since his days at Louisville, through his cup of coffee in ATL and again here and sleazy doings tend to catch up with us no matter how good we are at our jobs. I wouldn’t fire him but don’t expect him to suddenly become a saint (unless you mean a Na’wlins Saint).

  • Tom

    Good news, you guys have a Buckeye interim coach in Taver Johnson ! GO BUCKS

  • Jeff E

    Okay, Petrino should be fired immediately, this clearly crosses the line of decency and morality, I love football as much as anyone, but this is not a man that can come into a recruit’s home and recruit anyone of character anymore. Not only that, what kind of man is this??? What kind of POS would have an affair on a wife that he had 4 kids with multiple times, then lie to the public about a crash he was in, because she was riding with him on the back, clearly put this 25 year old woman in harm’s way, humiliate her in front of the entire world, humiliate the university, humiliate Razorback athletics. If the man had an ounce of character he would resign, and save Arkansas from having to shove this POS where he belongs, in the unemployment line.

    • John

      Jeff: You have nailed the issue head on. Fire and move on.

  • GolfHog

    She must not have been hurt because she landed on Bobby. Only fair. How did the State Police manage to botch the coverup?

    Bobby needs to win the NC to restore his good name. Jeff Long needs to save his superstar coach ASAP. Mrs. Petrino and the cuckold boyfriend are the ones with decisions to make.

    A man who will risk his home and family for some girl who could be his daughter is not a man of great judgement or maturity. Bobby is overworked, overpaid, overstressed, and now over a barrel. It is the life he chose. It is not the life of a saint. It is the life of a big ego and big privilege.

    If I were to have done the same thing I would not have lost my job. Only everything else.

    • John

      HdQtrs State Police did not botch the job. The man who was perhaps tooooo close to Petrino may have done something wrong but if he did rest assured that the HdQtrs. will not let him get by with it. They are looking into how it was handled.

  • http://therazorbackblogger.com/ GonzoHog

    Holy Sh**, some of you guys have completely gone over the edge and are now chirping with the coo coo birds.

    CBP is a big boy, living in a big boy world, just like the rest of us sinners, who constantly bitch about morality when it comes to high profile celebrities in a position like CBP’s.

    Did he do anything different most of us self rightous saints would’ve done? Not likely.

    Let’s get off our high horses for one damn minute and act like we have at least some common sense. CBP made a bad choice. He didn’t break any laws here.

    Oh and harms way? He put her in harms way? Jeez, and I thought she was a grown woman, who makes her own choices. I didn’t realize she was a minor.

    Decentcy and morality? What the hell were you saying CBP was cursing Les Miles live on CBS for running up the score in Baton Rouge?

    What kind of POS would have an affair? The same kind of man that pulls his britches up and combs his hair every morning…..just like you.

    Don’t act so saintly. You or I may have done exactly the same thing had we been in his position.

    • HogBlogger

      Gonzo is absolutely correct. Below are compiled statistics on infidelity and marriage: Note the last two Infidelity Statistics. From infidelityfacts.com.
      —
      Percentage of marriages that end in divorce in America: 53%

      Percentage of “arranged marriages” (where parents pick their sons or daughters spouses) that end in divorce: 3%

      Medical field(s) with the highest divorce rate: psychiatrists and marriage counselors

      Percentage of marriages where one or both spouses admit to infidelity, either physical or emotional: 41%

      Percentage of men who admit to committing infidelity in any relationship they’ve had: 57%

      Percentage of women who admit to committing infidelity in any relationship they’ve had: 54%

      Percentage of men and women who admit to having an affair with a co-worker: 36%

      Percentage of men and women who admit to infidelity on business trips: 36%

      Percentage of men and women who admit to infidelity (emotional or physical) with a brother-in-law or sister-in-law: 17%

      Average length of an affair: 2 years

      Percentage of marriages that last after an affair has been admitted to or discovered: 31%

      Percentage of men who say they would have an affair if they knew they would never get caught: 74%

      Percentage of women who say they would have an affair if they knew they would never get caught: 68%
      —
      Editorial: The basic truth is that the only thing that stands between a man and unfaithfulness is opportunity. I heard that from a preacher that said he went from praising God for his marriage and the fact that he was never tempted to be unfaithful to being unfaithful 3 hours later when a needy bombshell threw herself at him. The men that say they’d never simply haven’t had the right opportunity yet.

      Not justifying. I feel rotten today about all of this for a long list of reasons. But just saying. Also, remember there are a lot of other sins listed along with adultery in the Bible. I don’t recall that the list was weighted in any fashion toward any particular sin.

      I’m not going to throw stones at Coach Petrino. According to the Bible I’m not qualified. “Let he that is without sin throw the first stone.” According to the Bible no one is. “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”

      The New Testament Bible speaks of repentance and forgiveness. Stoning people was left behind in the Old Testament.

      Hopefully Jeff Long will treat Coach Petrino like God treated King David and we can move on quickly. Getting all high and mighty about this will cause a lot of collateral damage and hurt a lot of people that had nothing to do with the sin.

    • Chris from sherwood

      I really dont care what he does, but we pay his wages. As long as he wins its fine, im glad he didnt die, that would have screwed up our season bad. I want to win just like everyone else, if we use this foul mouthed little greasy liar to do it, so be it. I say keep him as long as we win, if he starts to lose, then run his dumb ass out of town, and bring in another coach,

  • GhostofHogFuture

    This situation should be handled very quickly before it gets ugly with recruiting. We have a shot at salvaging next season if Long quickly hires…. Garrick McGee. The offense can remain in place and flourish. Paul Petrino can’t stay. Maybe Haynes can stay, but hiring a new defensive coordinator isn’t going to be much more of an adjustment for the defense than they are presently dealing with. McGee would have the immediate confidence of the fans and the leaders on the team.

    • GolfHog

      I love McGee. No way he is ready for this. Bobby has to stay and take his medicine. He will work his way through this and become a better man for it. Hog fans need to support their coach.

  • Jonesboro Hog

    Gonzo I like your statement the best. Grown up people make there own grown up choices. Long has a tough choice to make. There are many pros and cons wether he should remain the head coach. The thing that gets me is that he did lie to Long and the UofA. If he had told the truth from the get go things may have gone differently. Jim Tressell did get fired when he kept things from his university. In my opinion this is a personal problem that is not related to football, but by being blasted all over ESPN and CNN in this manner is not good for our program. Guarantee you he stays and we beat Alabama, a lot of people will be forgetting about this.

    • John

      Guarantee the press never forgets!! Recruiting down the drain. Then these fans kissing up to P will be livid. I know. You have raw egg all over your faces over your rants about how principled P is rather than take into consideration other facts that showed that he was not principled. Better cut him loose while you have the evidence rather than wait for him to do something even worse. I am betting that he HAD alcohol in his blood, too. And likely lawsuits may be lurking. Cut him loose Mr. Long while you have the evidence rather than wait like UA did in Nolan’s case. Nolan should have been fired long ago when his mouth got the best of him rather than later. That is EEO pure and simple. Undisciplined people keep on doing the same thing over and over. P appears to have no after hours discipline just like some of his players. Examples are hard to live down and his undisciplined example will live on.

  • Chris from sherwood

    ok, so he is a moggot after all, we should have listened to EVERYBODY in the country. I personally dont give a sh&t about him anymore, as long as he gives us a good product on the field. It changes how i feel about him, and anyone who says it doesnt is a liar. I liked him, and chose not to beleive all that i had read about him, turns out he really isnt that nice of a person. keep winning, and people will forget, lose and he will get run out of town. We ponied up and took an increase of price for tickets, donations and paid for his huge salary and new facility…..now are we gonna have to pay for a pricey divorce as well, Long raises the price for everything to pay for “him”, i dont want to pay for his divorce settlement as well. Lets face it, football coaches are garbage, if we can get over the fact that we all thought he was such a great person, and support the team, we should be fine. just another piece of evidence of social moral decay, I dont trust him, but then again, i dont have to, just dont want to pony up more money for a POS. Go hogs

  • http://therazorbackblogger.com/ GonzoHog

    Before some of you go calling for CBP’s head, consider this. We’re at an all time high right now in the football program because of this man. He’s a fantastic football coach.

    If he is fired, be prepared for the program to take a step back for possibly a very long time. No getting around that.

    I could care less about what he’s supposedly done at Louisville and Atlanta like these clowns on ESPN keep blabbering about. He was hired here after the fact and what he does here is all that matters.

    • John

      Pure and simple GonZoHog we seem to have an undisciplined man on our hands. “Pay me now or pay me later.” Now we may know why the son went off the deep in. Perhaps, NO parenting by the father who had too many “plates spinning” out of control in his life. Mrs. Petrino you have the evidence. Take your time. Resolve is it can be but be careful. This is one of the hardest behaviours, perhaps, to change in a person. When a person digs their immorality trenches in their lives deeply, they generally find it difficult to crawl out of the hole…even if they have the desire to do so.

  • uvahog

    The self-righteous, narrow-mindedness at display on this board and around the country at large is just disgusting (and not just concerning this small topic). My God folks, the man broke no laws. Hypothetical situation: What if we found out Alabama’s Nick Saban had a massive stash of hardcore porn consisting of both hetero- and homosexual pornography but all of which was legal. Should he be fired in that hypothetical? Of course we would never know about something like that, but the situation is very much analogous, and just goes to show how puritanical and self-righteous folks can be.

    And really people, this is ARKANSAS: the home of President Bill Clinton. Should our university fire a highly competent man for stepping out when we continually re-elected a highly competent governor who was stepping out?

    I’ve made my thoughts on Arkansas football known on this board. I don’t think we have much of a chance to actually win a National Championship (we’ll be lucky to win an SEC championship) at Arkansas no matter who the coach is (despite how tantalizingly close we have come), but firing Petrino at this juncture would all but guarantee that fact for decades to come. Firing Petrino would do to the football program what firing Richardson did to the basketball program times 10.

  • AHogFan

    Not one person has mentioned the kids he recruited and the promises he made to them and their parents! I was a razorback athlete and when recruited was ensured to be coached and lead by the best example and with the best ability. How do you ask your players to be better than you could dream of being? I want the razorbacks to win just as much as anyone else, but shouldn’t we expect more than just a “w”? We have asked these KIDS families to send them to the U of A and trust that they will be getting all the best……is this the best? Just a thought

    • uvahog

      That is such a simplistic and unrealistic view of leadership and human nature. I don’t think Petrino promised the little kiddies on the team that he was going to be faithful to his wife!

      • AHogFan

        It has nothing to do with promising these kids he was going to be faithful and a lot to do with promises he made the kids’ parents about enhancing the lessons taught by themon how to be a honest trustworthy person. You obviously were never recruited by anyone otherwise you would have heard this kind of dialogue from a coach of a d1 school.
        PS I am not sure you know the definition of leadership!

        • uvahog

          First, I didn’t say you didn’t understand the definition of leadership, just that your views of it are naive, IMO. And what, in my statements, gives you the right say I don’t know what the definition of leadership is? Second, I have no earthly idea whether Petrino is a good leader. He’s a hell of coach, so my assumption is that he probably is since he’s good at getting the little kiddies to perform on the football field. The problem is that you and others seem to have this idealistic notion that leaders become totally ineffective once they have a grave moral failing. Has it occurred to you that Petrino might be a vastly more effective leader (using your understanding of leadership which is convincing the little kiddies to be good boys) having had a fall from grace than a, at least as far as we publicly know, straight-laced good Christian leader? Now, your point about recruiting is valid. If, as you suggest, this is going to truly damage recruiting. No I haven’t been recruited for division one sports and hope not to have a child that will be, but I think a serious mea culpa and public penance will brush this under the rug in a year or two if Bobby keeps winning.

      • Walking on Sunshine

        I think AHogFan has hit on the lingering question in my mind if Long allows Petrino to continue on: Can Petrino continue to go into living rooms and look parents in the eye and say “Trust me with your son for the next 4-5 years.” If he can’t do that, its debilitating.

    • John

      You are absolutely correct AHogFan. Absolutely correct. Cut the man loose now! Let he and his family go on their way and resolve it. This is a national scandel. Long cannot and must not overlook the current and FUTURE consequences of this situation.

  • Another Razorback

    Guys this one is over, BP is gone. There is too much legal exposure for them not to fire him. Forget everything else, he put her on the payroll. All this talk about human nature, morality, and forgiveness is fine philosophy but it has nothing to do with the problem we face. I guarantee you the University is negotiating her severance right now so she will not sue.The lie and the cover-up are incidental though his lie to Long is a knife in the back. BP can no longer be trusted and is too big a risk for the program now. It’s a painful day for all Hog Fans.

    • uvahog

      What in God’s name would she sue over, being given a job because she was sleeping with the boss? Thank you for sharing your great legal mind with us. Did you go to Harvard and Yale Law? We might be in trouble if he refused to give her a job after she refused to sleep with him, but it ain’t harassment to give someone a job after you’ve had a consensual relationship. It is, however, highly unethical and a serious abuse of power, but whether he ought to be fired for it is another question. It didn’t give the university liability for anything, though.

      • John

        uvahog, apparently you have no managerial experience. The fact remains that he was in a superior positiion with more responsibility than she. She was an underling. The boss has much more responsibility than a hire. My wife was on a court case similar to this and guess what? The jury wasted to give the young girl a million dollars although she was just as culpable as he. She did not get her million but she got money because he was in a superior position which matters greatly.

        • uvahog

          No I don’t have managerial experience; I have a wife who graduated from Yale law school. The university is highly unlikely to have liability; Petrino might have some, but pending on the exact circumstances, probably wont pay much. And, of course, that all depends on whether she’s going to be litigious anyway.

  • Willem

    perhaps she can’t sue, but his ability to hire any female in the future will be subject to incredible scrutiny. Even her hire is in direct conflict with the university policy on sexual harrassment. And it’s not so much just Petrino that is the worry from the legal perspective; it’s future lawsuits alleging that not addressing Petrino severely sets an example for future harrassment. And you know any attorney worth his salt is going to use Petrino’s misconduct to his or her advantage. Penn State is facing hundreds of millions in lawsuits. The UA may not face that, and Petrino may survive. I hope so. But the biggest obstacle for him is the legal problem potentially facing the UA. His hiring “that woman” was moronoic and Clintonesque. You almost admire his hubris but pity him at the same time.

  • Tyler

    I for one think BP has to be fired immediately. He is lying and cheating on his wife and kids. This does not represent a man god and leadership needed to be head coach of the university. Fear God.

    • James

      Get your religious Hour-of-Power ass out of here. This is about winning football games boy! Not church!

  • Don

    Everyone deserves a second chance, he who is without sin cast the first stone

  • John

    Lot of bad comments on here when people speak of not caring about anything but football. I care about his family and the man to get right and that possibility is probably greater if he would ride into the sunset with his family to get it together. Fans that is all that is important. Football games do not matter when it comes to important things of life.

  • Rob F

    He had an inappropriate relationship with someone he hired to be on the football staff. Plus he lied to his boss. In my opinion, that is where the legal ramifications are for his dismissal from the University of Arkansas.

  • John

    Remember that King David was forgiven but he had to run for the rest of his life with his son trying to kill him. Bad choices let loose things in ones life that cannot be put back into the bottle. I also care about a young person getting caught up in a superior’s stupid conduct.

    Progression of sin:
    1. Takes you further than you want to go.
    2. Keeps you longer than you want to stay. (David wanted to put it behind him but could not.)
    3. Costs you more than you wast to pay (life of David’s child and lost opportuities that I will not mention)

  • Jonesboro hog

    Skip says he won’t be fired. Just a ride threw the ozarks no laws broken.

  • John

    It might be better to retain him and let the fans see what future problems have been turned loose that they will not like down the road. Some are standing by their man right now but if his W’s dwindle you will not be able to cut him loose for he has an unbelievably money protection in his contract. Actually, Long bet the house on this contract. It is Long’s contract pure and simple. I am sure that Broyles is glad that they cut him out of this hire after all of this transpired. His hands are clean in this one! However, legally they have a hill to climb and much of that will likely be done in as much secret as they can muster.

    • NashvilleHog

      Can someone tell me exactly what law CBP has broken and exactly what legal trouble the UA is in? As someone has stated earlier, this comes down to money. If the booster money begins to dry up over the next few days, then BP is gone. If the money supports him, Long will keep him. And as for recruiting, I suspect that most recruits give a crap what CBP does in his private life, they want to play for a winnner. They all don’t have such helicopter parents as DGB and Neal.

  • Mike in Magnolia

    The way I see it we are in a catch 22. If he stays recruiting will be considerably hampered for a few years to come which will show up in the wins and loses. If he leaves then we will be several more years before we are relevant again. Because of this situation we have know one to blame but CBP. I would not want to be in Jeff Long’s possition today. Dang if you do dang if you don’t.

  • Soupdhog

    He everyone, if you want to hire a saint, good luck. No one is perfect and everyone screws up.

    If bobby is fired, someone else will snatch him up fast and hell be kicking our ass rather than us kicking others.

    If you want another pelphrey for our fb program, keep calling for Bobby’s head. The hogs will become a lame program. And if you think bobby won’t be able to recruit, it doesn’t matter. The guy takes 2-3 stars and turns them into nfl talent.

    Get off your high horses and come back to reality.