Not The Greatest Weekend For Bobby Petrino and Ozzie Guillen

This past weekend was certainly not the best of times for former University of Arkansas Head Coach Bobby Petrino and first-year Miami Marlins Manager Ozzie Guillen. Petrino was fired from Arkansas after a significant amount of fallout following a motorcycle accident early last week. On Tuesday Guillen was suspended for 5 games by the Marlins after his comments in a Time Magazine interview in which he lauded the career of Fidel Castro resulted a fire storm of backlash from South Florida locals.

Petrino's motorcycle crashed on a dirt road 10 days ago and despite suffering fairly significant injuries it had seemed that no further consequence would come of it. However several days later it came to light that a 25-year old woman was also involved in the accident and it further turned out she was riding with Petrino. Petrino had intentionally concealed her involvement from authorities and the University but unfortunately it proved to be a slippery slope once that cat was out of the bag. The woman, Jessica Dorrell, was actually the mistress of Petrino in a relationship he kept secret and mislead his family and employers. If that wasn't bad enough Petrino had also unfairly hired Dorrell only 4 days prior to the accident (he interviewed only 2 other candidates) and at some point in the past gave her $20,000 as a "gift" (read hush-money). Arkansas athletic director Jeff Long fired Petrino "with cause" for the unfair hiring and intentionally misleading the school about his relationship with Dorrell and her involvement in the accident. Petrino, a married father of 4, will not be entitled to the $18.3 Million buyout that was written into his contract. Arkansas has yet to name his successor.

The outspoken nature of MLB Manager Ozzie Guillen has been well documented over the years however his recent comments about Fidel Castro firmly crossed the line of what is acceptable. In an interview with TIme Magazine Guillen stated that he "Loves Fidel Castro" and "Respects him" because of the dictator's ability to remain in power for 60 years despite serious opposition. As one might expect Guillen's comments were met with serious hostility considering the density of the Miami area's Cuban cultural heritage (the new Marlins stadium is situated in Little Havana of all places). Guillen was forced to make a public apology for his comments on Tuesday shortly before being informed of his 5-game suspension. A group of Cuban-Americans has already banded together to boycott every Marlins game until Guillen is fired. While it is highly unlikely that Guillen will be fired so soon, it would seem that the decision by Marlins' ownership to use Guillen to help reach more of Miami's Latin American population may have failed even before it had a chance to start.