LITTLE ROCK — While some Kentucky fans rubbed their throbbing heads and wondered why they burned their sofas, Bobby Petrino was at work.
Maybe most of the sofas that were burned as some sort of misplaced pyromaniac passion for the Kentucky Wildcats, a flaming celebration, took them from beside the refrigerator on their front porch.
The wild and radical party of shooting and burning that accompanied the Kentucky Wildcats’ triumphant march to a much-deserved basketball national championship made national news.
So did Petrino.
First it was for having a motorcycle accident. Then it was for the more astonishing news that less than 48 hours after suffering four cracked ribs, a cracked vertebra, sprained neck and multiple contusions, Petrino faced the media.
Almost immediately, a plethora of pictures appeared on the Internet.
Petrino looked like he had gone 12 rounds with Jermain Taylor, whose comeback trail travels through Biloxi, Miss., on April 20.
Bruised and battered didn’t come close to describing Petrino.
Summer before last, while traveling through Montana, your trusty scribe had the chance to visit with friends of the Petrino family.
They opened up a little bit — after a secret call was made to Bobby Petrino Sr. — but the common theme was how tough Bobby and Paul, his younger brother, had always been.
They talked about the state championship Bobby Petrino’s team won when he was in high school. It was about 30 below, they said, and Petrino, the quarterback, was unfazed by the frigid air, basically running his team to victory.
They said rumor was Paul had been known to clear out a sports cafe or two by himself.
Basically, they talked — while their wives took turns playing nickel slots at a diner-casino-horse betting establishment — about how tough, mentally and physically, the entire family is.
Rodeos, including bull riding, have been part of the Petrinos’ past, and anyone who has ever done it knows how tough you have to be.
No one doubted it when Petrino walked into the news conference Tuesday, under his own power, wearing a neck brace and, according to the videos, looking a little chagrined.
Petrino, the former athlete and experienced motorcyclist, tried to lay down the bike, but it was too late.
The disciplinarian, the taskmaster, the guy who refuses to talk about injured players because they aren’t practicing, had made a mistake himself.
And in that news conference, he looked and sounded human.
He talked about the mistake of not wearing a helmet, about how the last thing he remembered was the setting sun and how fortunate he was to be there Tuesday.
Yes, it could have been worse. Much worse.
Petrino was thrown into shrubbery, which helped break his fall. It left him scratched and bruised, but it possibly saved his life.
There are still questions to be answered. The official state police report has not been released, but Petrino made it clear he had not been drinking, which was a good issue to clear up immediately.
None of the three people who helped him, the woman who flagged down the car or the couple who drove him until they connected with state trooper Lance King, have been identified, but they will be eventually.
The main thing — and that’s why it became national news — was less than 48 hours after the accident and five hours after being released from the hospital, Petrino faced the media and went to practice.
From his hospital bed Monday night he had reviewed some practice film from the week before.
The fact that he was at practice made a deep impression on many of his players.
They know firsthand he doesn’t just demand toughness from them, but from himself as well.
Sports, Pages 17 on 04/05/2012