The Bobby Petrino scandal

University of Arkansas head football coach Bobby Petrino got fired. Did he deserve it? Absolutely.

As a long-time motorcycle rider myself, I can sympathize with him laying a bike down. I wouldn't wish that on anybody. I did it once, as a young man, and it hurt -- a lot. Yours truly is unaware of the current helmet laws, or lack thereof, in the state of Arkansas, but if he chose not to wear one, along with his passenger, and something bad happens -- well -- to each their own, but sometimes there's consequences. In a not so funny way, the news pix of Bobby show him with a bit of road rash and a neck brace, while showing his passenger like she's posing for her senior picture. That's unfair media coverage. There's no way she looked like that after the bike went down, so why not show the same sort of post-accident photo of her as they did Petrino?

Petrino is, for now, a married man, with four kids. He's 51 years old. His passenger, Jessica Dorrell, is a 25 year old blond beauty, who he's alleged to have had an on-going "affair" with for some time. It's further alleged that Petrino not only put her on his (the university's/state) payroll, but gave her some sort of  $20,000 "bonus" along the way.

That was bad enough, but when confronted with the initial allegations by his superiors, he sealed his fate by originally adopting a Nixon-esque posture of lying and trying to cover it up. We all remember how Watergate eventually turned out, and now Bobbygate has gone down the same path.

As a football coach, Petrino was excellent at Arkansas. The Razorbacks were, and are, a top-ten caliber team.

Thing is, the only people that get away with this sort of nonsense reside on Wall Street, not the gridiron. There will be no golden parachute for Bobby Petrino. All he got was a lead boot in the behind kicking him out the door and, in my opinion, deservedly so.

But in the "good ole boy" merry-go-round network of football coaches, don't be surprised if Petrino pops up on another campus in a year or two.

I certainly don't condone a married father having an affair. Using other people's money to finance it, and then lying about it, makes it even worse. In the end, even the football crazy people in Fayetteville knew this was way too big to be swept under the rug, It wasn't going to go away, and they did what they had to do with Petrino. I would venture a guess that his "missus" isn't exactly proud of him right about now either. He may have another problem coming up soon.

If I could send a message to Bobby, it would be this: If there's ever a next time -- wear a helmet. Laws or not, only the young studs that think they're Superman go without them these days. I support their right to do so, and wish them well but, like you, they're not indestructible either. They just haven't figured it out yet. If they're out there long enough, see enough stuff, and live through it, they will -- eventually. One never knows what the next mile will bring.

And forget about any future bimbos, at least on the bike. All they want to do is yap in your ear and won't sit still. You know football. I know riding. Trust me on this one.