This blog is going to get me in trouble. My views that I am gonna express today are not gonna be shared by many of my friends and family. For that I am gonna apologize in advance. Bobby Petrino is no longer the head football coach at the University of Arkansas. I know there are tons of people out there saying, "yep he deserves it for his affair with a girl half his age". Well I am going to tell you moral America, if you think that is why he is not the football coach at Arkansas this morning you are dead wrong. I know we like to think that AD Jeff Long made the choice based on his moral dilemma with Petrino and his "innappropriate" relationship with the pretty 25 year old. We like to think he was fired for lack of character and not representing the University in the manner that it should be, with integrity and moral standards. WRONG! Bobby Pertrino is not the football coach this morning at Arkansas because he made the Jeff Long and the University look stupid. He kept information from him, and caused him to look as if he had no control over his program. You don't think that football in the south is bigger than an affair? You don't think if Nick Saban was caught doing that, he would have received a slap on the wrist and go get us another crystal football. The fact is had Petrino come out and told Long first thing, he would be giving his apology now instead of his exit speech. I know we like to believe that morals and ethics carry a lot of weight, but bottom line in college sports it doesn't. Football is bigger than some coaches affair, or DUI, or child sex abuse scandal. What football is not bigger than is a man's ego (AD Jeff Long), or a losing coach with a DUI (lucky for Gary Pinkel he wins), or a prestigious Universities reputation (Sandusky=Penn State enough said). Truth is this, we in America stand behind religion and morals and character and integrity when we can to garner some type of lime light. When all the while most of the time it is nothing more than a smoke screen for the true reason. You can bet Jeff Long will not be around long if Arkansas football starts loosing and boosters pull money and fund raising takes a dive. I hope his ego is strong enough to get a coach better than Petrino. My bet is at this point he can't. I would make the argument that Rodger Goodell's punishment for the Saint's was more of a moral driven decision than to fire Bobby Petrino. Should he be fired? Depends on what you think the role of a coach is? Did he win? Yes. Did he send players to the NFL? Yes. Did he turn the program around , which is what he was hired to do? YES! So based on that I say no he should not have. Should a coach be more than wins and loses? I think at the high school level definitely, a little less in college, and not so much in the Pro's. If he does not win games, are they going to fire him as well? I mean are they gonna keep him around for just be a man of "high moral character" if he goes 2-10 three years in a row? UHH NO! The truth is so much more complex than what most want to paint it in. Coaches are hired in big time, high pressure situations for a lot of money and expected to perform. Those that do thrive and those that don't get fired. They are in the spot light all the time and their every action held under a microscope, which is why most would say the firing was deserved because their life is so public. I mean morals and ethics are two different things that can be debated for ages. Bottom line is Petrino is fired. I just plore you to not jump on Jeff Long's high moral band wagon just yet. Know this, had his ego not been bruised, many of you would be outraged! That Bobby Petrino was STILL the head coach at the University of Arkansas.
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