Update: At a 10pm CT news conference, Arkansas athletics director Jeff Long announced that Bobby Petrino will be put on paid leave as the school further investigates this matter. Assistant head coach Taver Johnson will take over the day-to-day operations of the program for the time being.
Long set no timetable on how long the investigation would take.
The news on Bobby Petrino’s Sunday night police motorcycle accident just keeps getting worse for the head football coach of the University of Arkansas. According to a police report released late Thursday, a previously unknown female passenger was on his bike with him when it crashed late Sunday evening, adding a whole new list of questions to an already murky situation.
And if that wasn’t bad enough, to make matters worse, that female was 25-year-old Jessica Dorrell, a former Arkansas volleyball player, who has since worked as a fundraiser for the Razorback Foundation, and was just recently named a student-athlete coordinator for the football program. As in, she has been more or less working directly under Bobby Petrino the last few weeks.
In addition, the police report also says that it was actually Dorrell who flagged down the motorist who took Petrino to the hospital. Also according to the report, she had no known injuries, and after securing Petrino a ride to the hospital, was dropped off at her car and left the scene.
Now, all this is interesting for a few reasons.
The first, is that when news first broke of the accident, a news release by the university specifically said that Petrino was alone at the time of the incident. This is straight from Monday’s news release:
Coach Petrino was involved in a motorcycle accident on Sunday evening that involved no other individuals. He is in stable condition and is expected to make a full recovery. Our family appreciates respect for our privacy during the recovery and we are grateful for the thoughts of Razorback fans at this time.
To which we must ask, was the coach lying to his superiors? Or were his superiors trying to cover something up?
It’s also important to note that when Petrino was pressed by the media on Tuesday, he also made no mention of any other passengers. The Arkansas News points out exactly what Petrino said in the follow-up to that question:
When I came out of a ditch, there was a lady there that had flagged down a car. And the guy that was in the passenger seat said get in we’ll just take you right to the hospital.
Hmm, so you got out of the ditch, and there was just a random woman standing there, coach? How strange. What might even be stranger is that no one in the media room bothered to follow up on such a seemingly bizarre fact.
Now of course, this addition fact clouds the situation, and only adds moral and legal dilemma to everything.
On the moral end, Petrino is a married man, with four children. While it’s impossible to imply whether there was any wrongdoing or not with Petrino riding around town with Dorrell on his bike, it at the very least seems a little bit, umm, shady. Especially when you factor in that again, Dorrell basically works directly under Petrino. Oh, and that she’s also engaged to a fellow Arkansas athletics staff member. Again, we can’t assume anything. But it doesn’t look good.
Then of course there are the legalities of it, and this is where it gets interesting.
It’s tough to figure out if Petrino has officially breached his contract, but the Arkansas News did find an interesting nugget that at least raises the question.
All the credit to the Arkansas News, as we cite them with the following:
For the record, this is the general outline of Petrino’s $4 million-a-year employment contract. It says that he may be terminated for “…engaging in conduct, as solely determined by the university, which is clearly contrary to the character and responsibilities of a person occupying the position of Head Football Coach or adversely affects the reputation of the University or UAF’s Athletic Program in any way.”
Solely determined by the university, huh? That doesn’t sound too good for the coach.
Granted, that’s probably not enough to fire anyone, especially someone who’s been as successful as Petrino has been.
At the same time, Bobby Petrino, you sir have some explaining to do.
For all late-breaking news, opinion and more, follow Crystal Ball Run on Twitter @CrystalBallRun.
Follow Aaron Torres on Twitter @Aaron_Torres.
