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This Exists: Arkansas Radio Personality Fired Over Florida Hat (UPDATE)

Lest anyone still doubt people take their college football mighty seriously down in SEC country, Renee Gork, an employee of an Arkansas radio station, was fired recently. The reason: she wore a Florida hat to a press conference held by Arkansas football coach Bobby Petrino.

UPDATE: Tipster Paul sends us two links from the Dan Patrick Show, one where Gork offers her take on the whole mess, and one with her ex-boss Dan Storrs, who, while saying he “love[s]” Gork, says “there are several reasons” she was fired.

One interesting tidbit: Storrs said the Arkansas football program wasn’t happy with Gork’s choice of headgear. So, Petrino’s chide was…real? Either way, Storrs said it had nothing to do with Gork’s dismissal, but interesting.

Video of Petrino’s comment is here (and embedded below). We contacted Arkansas and Petrino to ask if the remark was indeed a joke or meant seriously. We’ll update this post further if we hear anything. (UPDATE: The school put out a news release saying, “University of Arkansas athletic department personnel did communicate to the reporter that her attendance at Monday’s practice was not recommended to allow additional time to pass,” but adding they had nothing to do with her employment status. Nothing on Petrino’s remarks as of yet.) For now, watch the video and decide for yourself.

The rest of the original post is as follows.

According to NPR, Gork said it was raining (Clay Travis of Fanhouse says Arkansas fans told him it was sunny), and she grabbed a Florida hat (she went there) and went about her business. To Petrino’s credit, he seemed like he took Gork’s wardrobe in good humor:

“And that will be the last question I answer with that hat on.”

But Gork’s former employer was a tad more harsh:

“This radio station is Hog Sports Radio,” [general manager Dan Storrs] said. “We are very biased. We support the Razorbacks 100%.”

At least they’re honest. And while yes, it seems excessive that hat choice could get someone fired (would just, say, a talking-to have hurt?), Gork has to – and surely now does – understand just how serious SEC football gets. Personally, I would always silently seethe when I saw, for example, Penn State hats being worn on Rutgers’ campus, so I get the fanaticism at play here on some level.

And it’s a good thing Petrino took it better than anyone else, since the guy knows a thing or two about disloyalty. Getting lectured by that guy might have topped the firing itself on the absurdity scale.

Photo via, shamefully bad circle illustration by Glenn Davis