Although Bobby Petrino’s quick, after dark exit from the Atlanta Falcons should have surprised no one, it still left the Falcons’ owner, officials and players with a rotten taste in their mouths.
Throughout his coaching career Petrino has left a trail of wreckage and deceit in his wake. Truly he deserves the moniker “Carpetbagger Bobby.” Never has he honored a contract, not in college coaching nor in the pro ranks. The man is an opportunist, pure and simple.
After assuring Falcons owner Arthur Blank he was with the franchise for the long haul, he bailed less than 24 hours later, signing on with the Arkansas Razorbacks as their new head coach. Good luck, Arkansas, because the sentiment in Atlanta is that you’ve got a real pig running your club now. How fitting.
Falcon players were stunned last Tuesday night to see Petrino laughing it up at a late night news conference from Fayetteville, complete with the traditional “Sooey!” University of Arkansas battle yell. In Georgia, the sight of Petrino calling the hogs was altogether appropriate. His high-handed, non-coaching leadership alienated fans, players and the media alike.
Petrino’s people skills are definitely lacking. He never did properly communicate with his players who are, after all, paid professionals. They didn’t cotton to his autocratic methods of dealing with them, methods that smacked of an adult dealing with adolescents. It never dawned on him that he wasn’t dealing with college kids who could easily lose their scholarships if they ran afoul of his Napoleonic dictums.
His play calling was also questionable. After he slunk out of town, word came out that he often missed offensive meetings while prepping for games. And the team would practice a certain number of offensive plays during the week, then have him call plays during games the team hadn’t practiced in weeks. He blew a game several weeks ago simply through horrendous clock management. There’s no question he was over his head in the NFL ranks.
At one point his (then) starting quarterback Joey Harrington learned he’d been demoted via the media. At the same time, reporters seemingly never got a straight answer out of Petrino, who’s broken (or, tried to break) every employment contract he’s had for years. He’d offer platitudes and non-answers to the press. Now perhaps that can be overlooked, say, in the case of Patriots coach Bill Belichick, but Petrino’s total track record in the National Football League is a 3-10 record, while at last glance the Hoodie Man’s team stands at 14-0 this season, and has won three Superbowls in the last six years.
Then there’s the Machiavellian aura Petrino adopted while dealing with Atlanta team officials. After it was clear the team was headed nowhere, he raised a number of concerns with Blank and general manager Rich McKay. According to the Falcons Petrino met with Blank and McKay and those concerns were allegedly satisfactorily addressed. Thus Blank went on national television last Monday night to assure viewers that Bigfoot Bobby would be staying.
Petrino didn’t even have the guts or the respect to face his players. Instead, he left them a four-sentence-long, typewritten note – after he left town. Needless to say, the players termed his departure cowardly. The nicest things anyone said about him were hypocrite, liar and quitter. The note Petrino left his players flew in the face of everything he’d said after their Monday night drubbing … things about sucking it up, rising to the occasion and in essence acting like men.
So much for those platitudes. The only thing Atlantans want to do now is warn the parents of those unsuspecting young football players Petrino might try to recruit at Arkansas. When he talks about building character don’t take it with a grain of salt. Take it with an entire salt seller.
