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[Queensryche]

For those that don't know, now former Arkansas Razorbacks football head coach Bobby Petrino was in a motorcycle accident on April 1st. This led to the revelation that he'd been cheating on his wife with a 25-year-old grad student, had hired her to run visits for recruits, and also gave her $20,000. Petrino in the process tried to cover all of this up.

Jeff Long is the athletic director for Arkansas. And despite the fact that the Razorbacks had recently been very successful, Long instead did the right thing and fired Petrino for conduct detrimental to the University of Arkansas and lying about his affair. Petrino was fired with cause, meaning Arkansas intends to not pay him anything (I'm certain Petrino is gonna try to sue).

You may say Long had no choice but to do so. But listening to his press conference, it's clear he did this because it was the right thing to do. And for once, a school put their institution above winning football games. Other schools might have waited for this to blow by. But Jeff Long decided to take action, and I admire him for that. My wish now is that a top-flight coach offers his services so that they can keep going as they are now.

Petrino is a shady character who's ditched teams before, and now karma finally bites him in the ass.

I'll end with some comments from those who have done business with Petrino.

"Please excuse me. I'm getting a boner from this." - Atlanta Falcons owner Arthur Blank
"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" - The University of Louisville

[Thrawn]

Memphis should still hire him...and hire him a girlfriend too if that is what is needed.

[Drywall]

Call me cold-blooded but how does cheating on your wife make you unfit to be a head coach for football? That's his private life and his personal business.

Now if he were stealing from the team, embezzling funds, etc I'd understand. But as I read this, he got fired for having sex with a 25 year-old girl. Isn't that..ummm..legal?

If I cheated on my wife with some 20-something year-old girl, my boss wouldn't have any right to sue me. Yes, I'm aware this guy is in the public eye and all, but I'm still not seeing how they have the right unless he commited a crime.

[Bender]

1. He lied about the accident, not disclosing to his boss that the woman was there.

2. He hired this woman for a job in his department, a job for which over 100 other people had applied.

3. He LIED to his BOSS when asked about the incident to cover up a shady situation.

[piperspitt]

1. So what
2. So what
3. So what
An accident has nothing to do with his job of coaching football.

[Queensryche]

1. So what
2. So what
3. So what
An accident has nothing to do with his job of coaching football.

He managed to embarrass the University of Arkansas. And correct me if I'm wrong, but getting your mistress hired for a job that 100+ people applied for is unethical.

[piperspitt]

So you are telling me that you know she was not qualified for the job?  

[MightyBP]

The implication from news media is that she was not qualified, but who knows for sure at this point?  Probably Arkansas, and that's about it.

As to the rest...it probably comes down to ethics and stupidity.

Ethics - lying to your boss when he asks you a direct question (as we're lead to believe from Long is what happened) will get you fired, assuming that Arkansas is an "at will" employment state.  It's not technically wrong, but it's ethically challenged, and Arkansas is in every way in its rights to terminate his employment provided Arkansas is an at-will state and the proper conduct language was in his contract (and I'm SURE it was; someone on the university board was most likely not stupid).  On top of that, the allegations of unfair hiring practices opens the university up to a HUGE liability which they will probably spend the next 5 years protecting themselves from, which is way more enough than cause to terminate.  But that said...

Stupidity - ...there's an old philosophy that when you meet someone through shady dealings and they routinely act shady, they're not all of a sudden going to turn around and be good forever because they get what they want.  Assuming so would be foolish on their part, as it was in the case of the University of Arkansas.  They assumed that Petrino would be good and happy at Arkansas and not do anything shady in any way, and somehow they're shocked and appalled that Petrino both lied and cheated again.

On a very...robotic level, I agree with PipersPitt, because the act of having a mistress (and even paying her $20,000 of my own money) is not in of itself cause for firing and it does not make you unfit to be a coach.  Ethically and morally challenged, yes, but not usually against the terms of business.  It's when you bring that into the workplace, as he did when he hired her (allegedly unfairly, as media is suggesting) that you're opening yourself up for termination.

[piperspitt]

For the record, I believe that his ethics were awful and that he hurt and shamed his family.  Having a mistress is wrong.  It is being assumed that his affair started before the hiring, if that is the case, and she got an "unfair" hiring advantage, as long as she was doing a good job, who cares? This happens all the time. Andrew Luck will be hired with the "unfair" advantage of being better than everyone else at football. When I was in college the football players and wrestlers got an "unfair" advantage of being hired by UPS because they were strong. When I hire people for my pharmacy I give friendly and bilingual people an "unfair" advantage. If I know somebody and know from outside experience that somebody will be good, I reccomend they apply and give them an "unfair" advantage. My point is that anything and everything can appear to be "unfair". It is complete BS to attack this woman's job qualifications based solely on the fact that Petrino was the one who hired her. She is probably a pretty darn good employee.

[MightyBP]

For the record, I think her quality of work is self-evident because she hasn't been reprimanded/fired/suspended/forced to resign/whatever Arkansas sees fit to do to her if they deemed her work poor.  This is a perfect excuse to clean house by spinning this story against her.

But, to continue the argument, there is a significant difference between a quality people look for in hiring (strength for UPS lifting, customer service in a pharmacy, etc) and an unfair advantage that has nothing to do with the job in question (sleeping with the hiring manager prior to getting the job).  If she's doing the job well, then she shouldn't necessarily be forced to relinquish it, but I'll bet the people that DO care are the two other finalists for the position.  Who's to say that, at the time, she was more qualified than the other two finalists for that position?  Who's to say they had a fair shake at the job, and the "finalist" designation wasn't a formality?  These are things we'll never know, but asking "who cares?" could have a very significant number of people saying "Me!"

And to add to that, in this country, the only thing you need to have a "successful" lawsuit is enough smoke to make a trial likely (and therefore a lucrative settlement even MORE likely).  It's not right (don't get me started on frivolity in our civil justice system), but it's there, and now it's something the University of Arkansas will have to worry about going forward.

[piperspitt]

Less qualified people get hired for almost EVERY job. Why? Because nobody really knows how good somebody will be until they are actually doing the job. When people hire their wife, girlfriend, neighbor, friend, friend of a friend, they do so because they have some experience knowing that the person would be a good fit. Bobby Petrino seems to be a pretty intelligent guy.  He would not hire somebody that would do a poor job and bring his hiring skills into question or hurt his program.  He wouldn't set himself up with a quid pro quo lawsuit either. Any other applicant will have PROVE that Petrino KNEW that they were more qualified AND didn't get hired because they fall into a protected class.

[Queensryche]

First:

His mistress or the appearance of impropriety in hiring her is NOT what got Bobby Petrino fired. It was for lying about an incident for which a police report was filed and trying to cover up impropriety with his lies.

And second: it's not like Petrino was already being given a second chance by the University. This was the first screw-up of his at Arkansas and he lost his job for it. This was a wakeup call for Jeff Long and after Petrino proved he couldn't be trusted, Long canned him.

[superradjoe]

As a faculty member of a college isn't it against the employment contracts to have physical contact with students?  I know of college professors who have been fired for such misconducts.

[Queensryche]

As a faculty member of a college isn't it against the employment contracts to have physical contact with students?  I know of college professors who have been fired for such misconducts.

The woman in question wasn't actually a student. She'd already graduated. Me calling her a student was inaccurate, so I apologize for the confusion.

[piperspitt]

It was more omitting than lying, but either way it had nothing to do with work. From what I read he was very truthful with the police, it was their business, not the ADs.

[Queensryche]

It was more omitting than lying, but either way it had nothing to do with work. From what I read he was very truthful with the police, it was their business, not the ADs.

His lies caused embarrassment to his employer. And as the head football coach, he's a direct representative of the University of Arkansas. So I'm going to disagree and say that it DOES have everything to do with his work because it made his employer look bad.

[piperspitt]

You think less of the University because an employee got in an accident and didn't reveal that a mistress was with him? That's kind of silly. I would bet that almost every university in the nation has an employee that has a mistress that goes undisclosed. Personal lives and professional lives are different entities. Not revealing details of your personal life to your employer should not ever be a problem unless it has something to do with the job.  Petrino embarrassed himself, not the University.

[Queensryche]

Just one problem with the example you gave.

Bobby Petrino was a public figure due to his position as head football coach at Arkansas and also a public representative of the university. Unlike some chemistry professor that's having an affair, a head football coach is held to a higher standard due to the public manner in which he represents his employer. If he does something wrong, it'll make his employer look bad due to the fact that he's a school representative and a public figure.

If it was JUST the affair, I don't think he would've been fired. It was the fact that he lied to his employer to cover up his affair, then the media reported that there was someone with him, THEN details came out that he had a woman with him and that he was having an affair. Considering Petrino is a public figure representing Arkansas and the fact that his boss heard about this on the news, I think Arkansas was totally in the right to terminate his employment.

I know you're a parent, Piper. Please put yourself in this situation: if your son was going to be choosing a school to play football for, wouldn't you want to steer him away from a school that employed a shady character like Bobby Petrino? Someone that lied to his employer and the public in order to cover up an affair? Is that the kind of person you would want as one of the primary figures shaping your son's final step into adulthood? Especially one that has a track record of lying? Arkansas got burned by Petrino, like his previous two employers. Unlike them, they were able to control the damage by cutting ties with him.

And as for Jessica Dorrell (his mistress who he hired), she's been put on paid administrative leave. Before you say anything, she was hired on March 28th, so whether she's doing a good job or not can't possibly be known at this time because she was just hired. Second, she signed a letter which explained that she was expected to follow NCAA, SEC, and University of Arkansas rules, as well as to comply with conflict of interest policies. So clearly she's in violation and the school's making sure to cross their t's and dot their i's. And finally, wouldn't you be the least bit unhappy that the person hosting your son when visiting the university was one that cheated on her fiance and appeared to get her job due to the fact that she was having an affair with the head coach? Forget whether she did or didn't get the job due to it. The mere appearance of it is going to turn people off and make some pissed off.