It would be wonderful to say that Arkansas athletic director Jeff Long changed the future of coaching behavior everywhere with his noble decision to fire disreputable Razorbacks football boss Bobby Petrino on Tuesday.
Not that employers in most businesses would have that tough a time terminating a 51-year-old husband and father of four who began an affair with a fellow employee half his age, then connived to promote her to a higher position within the company at the expense of 150 other applicants, then lied to his superiors about all of it.
Normally, firing a bum like that would be as easy as taking out the trash, which is pretty much what Long did when he pink-slipped Bad Boy Bobby.
Yet Arkansas is a 20-year member of the Southeastern Conference, which — fair or not — is viewed as the most bottom-line league in the land. That’s especially true in football, where the SEC has won the past six national championships.
And given that, it is certainly refreshing to know there’s at least one SEC AD with enough belief in his convictions to part ways with a coach who’s won 21 of his last 26 games. Especially since the Hogs finished fifth in the final poll of the 2011 season and were predicted to do at least that well this coming autumn.