Petrino’s agent blames Blank’s interference

In today’s Birmingham News, the agent for former Falcons head coach Bobby Petrino doesn’t paint a pretty picture of their perspective on what led to Petrino’s sudden and stunning departure from Atlanta.

Russ Campbell says that Falcons owner Arthur Blank broke two promises to Petrino. First, Campbell says Blank agreed when he hired Petrino that the coach would be free to leave the Falcons to take a college job if he decided he didn’t want to coach in the pros.

Second, he says Blank promised Petrino that he wouldn’t mess in the coach’s business.

“One of the main issues,” Campbell told the News, “was the owner’s involvement in the football program.”

Blank assured Petrino a year ago that he would stay out of the way if that’s what the coach wanted, Campbell said, but “he’s in it up to his elbows.”

Campbell offered an example: After a pregame team prayer, Blank pulled Petrino aside and strongly objected to the prayer’s wording.

Yeah, just what a head coach wants to deal with before he takes his team out on the field. And Blank had dinner with the coach every Monday to talk about the previous Sunday’s game. Those probably weren’t very pleasant for Petrino, either.

In the wake of the Petrino debacle, Blank has indicated he plans to get even more involved in the team’s operation. One suspects/hopes that at some point Blank is going to learn the lesson Ted Turner eventually learned when he owned the Braves: that he didn’t know a damned thing about running a baseball organization. So he hired someone who did, and then stepped out of their way. All Ted did was provide the cash, soak up the applause and pick up the trophies.

Not a bad strategy.