Perhaps the weight of a 2-21 record, a mark that has him squarely on the coaching hot seat, is finally getting to Paul Petrino.
Last season, the Idaho head coach and his counterpart at Washington State, Mike Leach, exchanged “pleasantries” during the course of a postgame handshake, with the former initiating the verbal jousting and the latter ending it with a succinct “hey, **** you.” Fast-forward nearly a year, and the brother of Bobby Petrino was involved in another verbal confrontation that very well could’ve turned physical.
Apparently unhappy with something the Moscow-Pullman Daily News’ Michael-Shawn Dugar wrote that appeared in that morning’s newspaper, Petrino, according to Dugar’s account, verbally confronted him at the end of Wednesday’s practice. The confrontation was witnessed by another reporter.
The issue began with a sarcastic jab from Petrino aimed at Dugar, with Dugar responding in kind. From there, things began to escalate, with Petrino banning reporters from the next practice. “If all you’re going to write is negative (expletive) then none of you need to be here!”
From Dugar’s report:I dismissed it as a lack of awareness, perhaps not realizing that while we were in fact on the football field, neither I nor the Tribune writer were his players, and we don’t respond to being spoken to that way.
But moments later, Petrino walked up to me and the Tribune reporter just outside the practice field and began to scream in my face, loudly informing us how many deep balls the team completed Wednesday. He then went on to chide us for our inaccurate criticisms of quarterback Matt Linehan and our lack of football knowledge, walking away saying, “You don’t even know what the (expletive) you’re talking about! Do your (expletive) job!”
Then he turned back and started to move toward me, still angrily shouting expletives about my writing and my professionalism while being physically restrained by one of his assistants, approaching me as if he had plans to do something other than verbally express his concerns.
I stood quietly, choosing not to engage with him, instead waiting for him to lower his voice and talk to me like a man. I never had the chance. He just walked away.
What if he had not been restrained? Would he have physically tried to harm me or the other reporter? Would he have tried to make me do up-downs? Hopefully we never find out. Regardless, Petrino’s outburst raises several red flags about his professionalism and maturity.Again, this is just one person’s account of the situation. However, it it’s even remotely accurate, this coach might want to consider growing up at some point in the near future. Or find himself another, less stressful position.
