[RubberMallet]

The owners have NO loyalty toward coaches or players. Why should they be loyal? None of you can tell me that if the move benifited your family in some way, you wouldn't have done it either.

It's not the fact that he did it, but the timing that's getting everyone all up in arms. Big deal.

i too thought about this....however when they fire a coach they still have to pay him...so its not like they totally screw him....otherwise i'd completely agree.... they may not have any loyalty but their lack of loyalty usually has a price associated with it...

[LUconn]

except take the "my family" out of "best intersest of me and my family". His family is fine either way. They make for a nice excuse though. The letter seems 20X more selfish if he doesn't include his family.

[olldflame]

"Benefit his family???" Does anyone seriously think his family's quality of life has been suffering as he made 4mil/year in Atlanta?

It is not just the timing that made this bad (although that was a lot of it, and IMHO it IS a big deal). It was the blatent dishonesty.

He made the move when he did in order to begin recruiting for Arkansas right away (he's already passed the NCAA test and started). The problem is that any potential recruit who has a clue is going to know how he has handled himself the past couple of years and be leery about buying what he is selling. He would have been better off offering to finish the season with the Falcons and having a proxy (his brother/offensive coordinator) begin recruiting. He wouldn't have had to tell the bold-faced lies he did, and it's likely the Falcons would have told him to hit the road anyway.

[belcherboy]

"Benefit his family???" Does anyone seriously think his family's quality of life has been suffering as he made 4mil/year in Atlanta?

It is not just the timing that made this bad (although that was a lot of it, and IMHO it IS a big deal). It was the blatent dishonesty.

He made the move when he did in order to begin recruiting for Arkansas right away (he's already passed the NCAA test and started). The problem is that any potential recruit who has a clue is going to know how he has handled himself the past couple of years and be leery about buying what he is selling. He would have been better off offering to finish the season with the Falcons and having a proxy (his brother/offensive coordinator) begin recruiting. He wouldn't have had to tell the bold-faced lies he did, and it's likely the Falcons would have told him to hit the road anyway.

The guy is a master salesmen. He has an unbelievable college record, and has coached many future NFL athletes. He has spent time in the NFL as a head coach. Why would a recruit NOT want to play for a coach like that? Do you think 17-18 year old kid is going to say, "well he left the Falcons in a dishonest manner, so I prefer another program"?

As slimy as this guy is, he is a MASTER salesmen with huge amounts of success in developing programs and players. He will most likely succeed at Arkansas. I worked for a car dealership one summer while I was still attending Liberty and the biggest selling salesmen was the slimiest guys you would ever meet. For some reason, lots of people still bought cars from him! (he actually did some jail time for other slimy business moves outside of the dealership, and came back a year later to regain the top salesmen spot!) Petrino's behavior makes him a slime ball in my book, but I doubt this latest move will hurt his ability to recruit top talent.

[olldflame]

Used car salesmen aren't called everything from traitor to liar to quitter to jerk by respected commentators on national TV.

News Flash: High school football players watch ESPN!!