Last week, the University of Louisville hired Bobby Petrino to be it’s football coach…for the second time.
Bobby Petrino was previously the coach at Louisville from 2003-2006, before leaving to coach the 2007 Atlanta Falcons and beginning what would become an incredible story of self-destruction. Thirteen games into the 2007 season, Petrino abruptly resigned as the Falcons’ coach to become coach at the University of Arkansas. He left without addressing his players, only leaving them a typed note in their lockers at their practice facility on a Tuesday morning.
He coached for 3 seasons at Arkansas before again being caught up in scandal. He admitted to an affair with a female staffer after taking her for a ride and subsequently wrecking his motorcycle, and was fired after school officials learned he had engaged in other questionable activities while their coach.
On January 9, 2014, Louisville announced Petrino had been hired again to coach their football team. So…why the blog about him?
One side of me cynically cries “foul” that one with such a nefarious track record could be given this opportunity. It just doesn’t seem fair that one of the “bad guys” caught a break. In reality, however, I’ve come to remember that we are ALL “bad guys.” Romans 3:10 reminds us that there is none righteous.
God’s grace gives all of us bad guys a shot at redemption. The Petrino hiring serves as a vivid reminder of the grace upon grace that I have received from God. God gave me a second shot… and a third shot… and a fourth shot…and a 5000th shot. I now must learn to extend grace to other bad guys like me.
If you, O Lord, should mark iniquities,
O Lord, who could stand?
But with you there is forgiveness,
that you may be feared. – Psalm 130:3-4