A Fool and his Words are Soon Parted

Moment of College Sports Zen: Local TV Irony January 8, 2007

Last night, WHAS-TV ran one of those 5-second “Congratulations to UofL and Coach Petrino for winning The Orange Bowl. I had to laugh though.

While the still frame of the team & coach were being displayed under this voice-over, a news blurb was running at the bottom of the screen:

Special Update: Coach Bobby Petrino to leave Louisville as Head Coach to lead the Atlanta Falcons.

I think Petrino’s making a mistake, and would have done well to have discussed this with UofL’s Men’s Basketball coach, Rick Pitino (Pitino had a… shall we say “less than successful” transition from UK to the Boston Celtics). On the other hand, Petrino’s worked in the NFL before (as a quarterback’s coach), so he should know what he’s getting into. In addition, his past behavior has not exactly shown him to be a man who felt obligated to stand by a written contract or his verbal commitment to the community, so this shouldn’t come as a huge surprise to the community.

In the end, like it or not, college football is a business, just like the NFL, and the reality of this is that “business ethics” is generally an oxymoron. It’s a lousy message to send young men (both players and recruits), and I wish it weren’t that way, but that doesn’t change the reality.