An interesting (and somewhat troubling) aspect of the coverage of the Bobby Petrino story has been the notion that the university decided to fire Petrino only after "the lawyers" got involved. Arkansas's lawyers got into the mix, pointing out the liability to which Petrino may have exposed them. And everyone was scared of the plaintiffs' lawyers representing the 150+ applicants who did not get the job. Mike Wilbon at PTI has been on this point for several days, as have some internet commentators.
As Mike's investigation shows, Petrino breached university hiring protocols and ethics rules, if not state law governing employment, hiring, and perhaps fraud. That is, and ought to be treated as, a far-more-serious offense than violating NCAA regs or having an affair. And it minimizes what he did to pass it off as a matter of "lawyers" getting involved. Maybe they're involved because Petrino did something wrong and/or unlawful.
