Arkansas fires Bobby Petrino

DAYTEVILLE, Arkansas Bobby Petrino, the head coach of Arkansas, was dismissed on Tuesday after he was publically humiliated for employing his mistress unjustly and purposefully lying to his supervisor about everything, including their relationship and her attendance at the motorcycle accident that eventually lost him his job.

At a press conference in the evening, athletic director Jeff Long revealed his decision and presented an astoundingly long list of transgressions committed by the player he hired away from the Atlanta Falcons four years prior.
Among them were passing up many opportunities during the previous ten days to tell Long the truth about a relationship that had veered beyond adultery and into favoritism at work.

At one point, Long choked up as he talked about notifying the players that their coach was leaving. “He made the decision, a conscious decision, to mislead the public on Tuesday, and in doing so negatively and adversely affected the reputation of the University of Arkansas and our football program,” Long said. “In short, coach Petrino engaged in a pattern of misleading and manipulative behavior designed to deceive me and members of the athletic staff, both before and after the motorcycle accident.”
There were no talks about keeping Petrino at Arkansas, according to Long, who claimed Petrino was fired “with cause” and will not get the $18 million buyout his contract allowed for.

“I’m sorry is the simplest reaction I can give. These two terms don’t seem like enough. But that’s what I really feel,” Petrino stated in a release. “I can’t stop thinking about how many individuals I’ve let down with my self-centered choices. In the past, I’ve received a lot of criticism. Some were undeserved, and some were. I just have myself to blame this time.

“I made the decision to enter into a bad relationship. After that relationship ended and in the wake of the accident, I also made a number of bad choices. I take full responsibility for the events that transpired.”

Before being hired by Petrino on March 28, four days after she left the Razorbacks volleyball team, Dorrell worked for the Razorbacks Foundation.