Everything Petrino

Angry? Upset? Saddened? Frustrated? Just plain old pissed off? Yeah, me too. What Bobby Petrino did to the Atlanta Falcons - regardless of your feelings for the team - was just about the worst thing that could have happened to them. Since Petrino walked away, there have been plenty of opinions. We tend to get this way when there's a cause worth fighting for or against (See: Sean Taylor, Michael Vick, Barry Bonds), which means every opinion under the sun is floating around out there.

I have offered mine in Wednesday's Telegraph and will do so again for Thursday's Telegraph, but it's time to be a little candid, because most of us in the media each have our own versions of what this guy was all about.

Most of us who are able to express opinions in print can say that we went to bat for Petrino at one time or another this season. With all the team has had to deal with internally, it became easy to give Petrino the benefit of the doubt and let him slide through this season. After all, with all the Vick stuff going on, we knew that this wasn't what Petrino had signed on for.

But through it all, Petrino looked like he was handling it well. He painted a very surreal picture of what things were like for the organization internally during the preseason, and while most of us had an idea that the team was going to be bad, Petrino led us to believe it was going to be just a shade above mediocre, which honestly would have been fine considering the circumstances to date.

But really, it was just Bobby Petrino being Bobby Petrino, spinning tall tales of euphoria in a cool, calm manner that made him easy to believe. When DeAngelo Hall and Alge Crumpler came out and made wild accusations of Petrino, it was juicy news, but it just seemed all too outlandish for such a quiet guy, so some of us passed Hall and Crumpler's comments off as the product of frustration. Even when Grady Jackson was released, we kind of suspecting something was up, but maybe passed that off as coincidence.

But slowly, we started to realize the gravity of the situation. There were times Petrino would come into the postgame interview room after a loss and look as if he had just narrowly avoided being hit by a truck. He would be wide-eyed, pale and look completely disconnected. But then he'd start talking and the pretty picture he has painted since training camp would begin to take shape again. But when the quarterback controversy came along and we started noticing the absolutely terrible playcalling and decision-making on the field, we knew everything he said was a load of garbage.

Now we hear everything that has come out the past two days - some really private stuff, in fact - and the whole world starts to make sense. Everything he ever said was a load of rubbish. In hindsight, you never could tell if he was telling the truth or looking you square in the eye and telling you what you wanted to hear at that particular moment.

The way Petrino left is dishonorable. Even brussel sprouts are disgusted with this guy. Jamaal Anderson has been telling his buddies that Petrino is the most disloyal person he has ever come across, and I say good for Jamaal. Petrino's future players need to know exactly what they're getting themselves into by staying with or coming to Arkansas.

Can you believe this guy didn't even bother to show up for a pregame meeting on Monday??? This whole situation has just been crazy, and while it's terrible the way he left, it's good that he's gone so the Falcons can begin to move on. It's clear that he was the one holding them back all season.