You know why so many folks have so much disdain for Bobby Petrino?

Story everywhere

Glenn called me late at night on Tuesday – see the conference, ajc.com

All week long – every opinion possible

Petrino is a liar, scoundrel, slinking off to Arkansas without even finishing the season

Details of story – did not finish first season of 5 year $24MM deal – took pay cut

Things cratering around him – first to jump ship

Motto of “Finish” but always shopping for next opportunity

Arthur Blank – livid – abused, betrayed, disappointed, and let down

CLIP

Wishing he could go back to running Home Depot – never stepped into the vortex of the Falcons – a black hole – just seems to be jinxed

But what struck me most were comments of players

CLIPS – Harrington, Dunn, and Hall

Milloy – Coward

Anderson – disloyal

Dunn – liar

Harrington - disregarded

Cancer, selfish

Brooking - betrayed

Sound like kids abandoned by father

Hit me like a freight train – lot of these guys are 22, 23, 24 years old

For them, coach is a father figure

In all likelihood, half or more of these guys had little or no real father in life, Petrino filled that role just like high school and college coaches had

Began to make sense to me

Betrayal, trust, abandoned

But what overwhelmed me were comments in paper, blogs, talk radio

Venom and disgust for Petrino – vilified him – burn in effigy

He looks a lot like us

We are hacked off because he reminds us of us, ourselves

Men do this all the time – make a commitment to wife and kids, going gets tough, bail out and look for easy option

Thousands of families in Atlanta, millions in America, tonight feeling just like Falcons

Vow before God, better or worse, vow to kids to be a good dad, better dad, “I'll be around”

Yet punt

Folks do it at work – right way and a wrong way to leave a job or a responsibility

Do it at home – leave mess for someone else to clean up

I think Petrino reminds us of us – of our own failures, character shortcomings, and so we scream and yell and demean him to make ourselves feel better