Bobby Petrino, head football coach at the University of Arkansas, crashed his motorcycle on April 1st. He probably wishes the whole event had been an April Fool’s Day hoax. Pictures taken at Petrino’s initial press conference after the accident looked like a cautionary tale for wearing a helmet while riding a motorcycle. As more information of the incident bubbled to the surface, the helmet proved to be a minor item on a long list of cautionary tales.

Initial reports from the Petrino family stated that the football coach was alone on the motorcycle. The state troopers investigating the incident later reported that Petrino was accompanied by a young woman. This woman was not his wife, the mother of his four children. The young lady, a former volleyball player at Arkansas, was half Petrino’s age. Faced with these uncomfortable facts, Petrino admitted to a “previous inappropriate relationship.” Further investigation by the University of Arkansas revealed that Petrino’s motorcycle buddy had recently been given a job in the football program and $20,000 from Petrino’s personal funds. Ten days after his motorcycle tipped in a “gust of wind,” Bobby Petrino was relieved of his coaching duties at the University of Arkansas.

Perhaps the saddest part of the Petrino scandal is the familiarity of the story. This time the perpetrator was a powerful college football coach but it could have been a politician, business man, or even a pastor. It seems that each day the news report brings another appalling account of corruption, infidelity, deceit and abuse of power. As those who represent God to the world, these appalling accounts should stir us with moral outrage. The scandals should lead us to speak about the decline in morality. We should continue to call society back to decency and ethical behavior as modeled by Christ, but on the way to our soapboxes we must also consider how we protect ourselves from succumbing to the moral decadence that we decry.