Bobby Petrino--YOU'RE OUTTA THERE

Bear with me, I'm going to take you on a long, convoluted explanation about why University of Arkansas Head Football Coach Bobby Petrino was fired.

The cover up.

Kind of a big build up for nothing, wasn't it.  Check this out...

• Bobby Petrino wasn't fired for having an affair. If people got fired for having an affair the unemployment rate would go through the roof.
• Yahoo! reports Coach Petrino gave his mistress $20,000. It is also reported that this was a gift from his personal accounts, not the University nor the Razorback Foundation which supports and funds Arkansas Athletics. So he wasn't fired for this either.
• Coach Petrino did not get fired for making a false report to the police because technically he did not make a report. As for lying to the police in general, well, that's "an error of omission, not commission."
• He wasn't fired for hiring his mistress. The violations of employment law was enough to get him fired, but it wasn't why.
• He wasn't fired for misuse of state employees. The local newspaper reported Coach Petrino contacted his personal game day security day man after the accident to get him to the hospital and keep things on the down-low. This man is an Arkansas State Trooper. This too could have gotten him fired, but it wasn't why.

What Bobby Petrino was fired for was lying about all of this to Arkansas Athletic Director Jeff Long. I believe all of this could have been swept under the inappropriate rugs if it were not for the lies. 

What Coach Petrino was despicable, I'm sure his wife would agree. But it's nothing a state university, athletic department, or team couldn't live with. And while I find that sentence despicable, I also believe it's true especially in the football crazy SEC.

In the end, it was lying to Jeff Long that made Bobby Petrino's stay at Arkansas untenable. If it weren't for the cover up, it could have all gone away.

The moral of our story is, as usual, those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it. Look at Watergate, Iran-Contra, Whitewater, and any one of a million other political scandals since time began. It's not the crime that gets you, in the end it's the cover up.

At least that's my opinion. Here's Jeff Long's...