NCAA Football

The Saddest Story Of The Bobby Petrino Scandal Might Belong To The Fiance Of His Mistress

As much as we said Arkansas shouldn’t have fired Bobby Petrino for the motorcycle/affair-with-woman-on-staff/lying scandal, the school did, and while we still think it’ll be tough to find another coach as good, we don’t exactly blame the Razorbacks. Every detail that’s come out has made the story worse and worse. He wasn’t alone on the motorcycle. The passenger was a 25-year-old woman, Jessica Dorrell. He admitted to an “inappropriate relationship” with the woman. He’d recently hired the woman onto his football staff. Oh, and he gave her $20,000.

And to top it all off: she’s engaged. (Petrino, of course, is married with children.) Engaged to a different Arkansas employee – Josh Morgan, to be exact. Morgan was a strength and conditioning assistant with the Razorbacks’ swimming, diving, men’s track and field, and women’s golf programs. This was the happy couple’s wedding website before it got defaced by trolls and subsequently shut down, just in case you’re looking for a way for this story to get any uglier (and the relationship might be over entirely).

And now comes the news that Morgan is no longer listed as a strength and conditioning assistant – the school’s official list of those can be seen here.. There was chatter that Morgan was no longer at the school, but for now, it’s worth noting that there still a “Josh Morgan” listed as an athletic department staff member in the school’s online directory, and that apparently the school said he’s still on staff.

Morgan’s life has to have been turned upside down by this story, and the way it’s played out so publicly only makes the chaos around him even worse. It’s one thing to see Petrino and Dorrell get raked over the coals – they’re the ones who made this mess happen. But the hell it has to be bringing on a guy like Morgan, who as far as we know did nothing wrong? That’s the saddest part of all of this. All the negativity and rumors might fade eventually, but it’ll be a while before things get back to normal… whether Morgan keeps his job at Arkansas or not. We do not envy him.

[BSO]