The Daily Trap, Trap of the Day: Bobby Petrino

Sports and scandal. Two words that have become inseparable lovebirds in the world of athletics. As the sports editor here at Trapit, I find myself on a weekly basis pondering, who is next? Who will be the next sports “professional” to slip up and make the headlines for the wrong reasons. Like clockwork, the next name gets thrown my way ready to get trapped.

This week, the gold medal for sports idiocy goes to (former) head football coach of the Arkansas Razorbacks, Bobby Petrino.The public gaffe took root behind the scenes, as the 51-year coach pursued a double life off the football field. In a bizarre unfolding of events, Petrino was discovered to be having an affair with a university employee half his age. In Petrino’s eyes, he wasn’t cheating, because he hadn’t yet been caught. Then it all came crashing down on him. Literally, crashing.

Petrino’s name became sullied after he crashed his motorcycle going on a scenic highway ride. How romantic. The details of how he crashed were far less compelling than whom he was with when his tires lost traction. Riding on back was 25-year old Jessica Dorell, an employee working in the Razorbacks’ athletic department. Here’s the catch—Petrino himself was the one that hired her! To make matters worse, Petrino had to face the public for the first time donning a ridiculous looking neck brace underneath that scraped up, bewildered expression on his face.

Cheating on your wife is one thing—it will get divorce papers filed in a hurry. But cheating with a woman that you strategically brought into the athletic department to work a very desirable job, well coach, that’s what gets you fired. And that’s precisely what happened.

Turns out, the two had exchanged thousands of text messages and phone calls over the course of their clandestine relationship. Phone records also indicate that Petrino’s cheating ways may not have begun with just a single woman. Did a Miss Arkansas bikini model come first? Get this, the other woman in question once won a Miss Motorcycle Mania competition. Oh, the irony.

Well, what did we learn from all this? This writer provides 21 lessons.Without even reading the piece, I can provide one valuable lesson: Don’t be an idiot when you know the public eye is watching.

It just keeps getting more and more interesting (and sleazy) in the Bobby Petrino trap!

-Geoff