I got to say I'm surprised how many of you would tolerate like you say you would if you were Arkansas AD or administration.
Let's get the facts straight. No one is suggesting he should be fired for cheating on his wife. Bad person, but nothing illegal about that. He might have been able to get away with trying to cover up the fact his mistress was on the motorcycle with him at the time of the crash. He lied to the public there, looks even more foolish, but not necessairly illegal, maybe filing a false police report results in a slap on the wrist.
What was icing on the cake was hiring your mistress for a plum position that 158 other people applied for and not disclosing that relationship. A clear conflict of interest and as a university there was no way around it not to fire him for that.
Think you guys are all big talkers. While Jeff Long made the "decision," you can bet the administration and board would not have accepted anything less in this case. Checks and balances folks.
I totally see what you are saying here. But I'm a guy who values winning over "doing things the right way," especially for a program like MD football that needs to start generating fan interest. Obviously, the #1 way to generate fan interest is to win.
If I was Jeff Long, the only reason I'd consider firing him is if I was afraid of being sued by those who lost out to the job that the chick ultimately got.
Petrino was clearly sorry and apologetic. Long could have suspended him for 2 games without pay and sent him a rather large message privately.
Don't get me wrong...if I was Long, I'd be pissed and I do have an ego, so I'd be very tempted to tell him to take a hike. That being said, again if I was Long, I'm ultimately going to be judged by my superiors by wins and losses in football more-so than any other sport combined, and ultimately, my legacy will be judged on those same merits.
Arkansas very likely went from a top 5 National Championship contender to not having much of a chance to win it with this move.
They have a perfect storm with where they are as a program right now combined with their schedule of having both Bama and LSU at home. To throw that away is a bit extreme IMO.
I understand why he did it..I just wouldn't have done it.