By Steve Brawner, © 2019 by Steve Brawner Communications, Inc.

I don’t know if Bobby Petrino’s first return to Arkansas since 2012 was the most important statewide story this week, but it definitely was one of the most interesting.

The former Arkansas Razorbacks head football coach appeared before 700 people at a sold-out-in-24-hours Little Rock Touchdown Club meeting Monday. The format was a Q and A with media personality and former Razorback David Bazzel.

It didn’t take long for Petrino to address the issue that was on everyone’s mind. After briefly sharing some football-related memories, he said, without being asked, “I wanted to be able to come here and apologize to everybody, the fans, the players, and truly tell you how sorry I am for the way it ended. I also wanted to come here and thank you for everything that the people in this room and the state did for me and my family.”

His voice choked up a little, but he held it together. The crowd gave him a standing ovation.

Petrino had not been back in the state since after he was fired April 11, 2012, by former University of Arkansas Athletic Director Jeff Long.

You no doubt remember what led to that. Petrino had led the Razorbacks football team to a 21-5 record his last two years and a number five ranking that season. Then there was the motorcycle accident and the press conference with the obviously injured Petrino wearing a neck brace. Then we all found out he wasn’t alone on that motorcycle, and that he not only had an affair, which wouldn’t have gotten him fired, but that he also had hired his 25-year-old mistress, given her $20,000 of his own money, and failed to tell Long about any of this.

It was an enormous scandal from which the Razorbacks program has never recovered. Before it happened, there was talk of the team contending for a national championship that next season. Instead, it finished 4-8. Since Petrino’s firing, the program has a combined record of 35 wins and 52 losses – and that’s including games against weak nonconference foes, some of which have beaten the Razorbacks. The Razorbacks are 13-43 in Southeastern Conference games over that span and have lost 12 SEC games in a row. They are on their third coach since Petrino left, including John L. Smith, who was an interim unless he had won.

Petrino recovered. He soon landed the head coaching job at Western Kentucky and then returned to Louisville for his second stint there, where he saw some success and coached Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback Lamar Jackson. But when the Cardinals went 2-8 in their first 10 games last season, he was fired from there, too.

I can’t know what’s in a man’s heart. People are pretty good actors. But it certainly seemed like he was sincere and humble Monday. He had a lot of good things to say about his time here and shared a lot of memories. It was fun seeing highlights of Ryan Mallett throwing touchdown passes.

Bazzel told the crowd that Petrino had hemmed and hawed when asked about his fee and then ultimately came for free. He’s not hurting for money considering Louisville paid him $14 million in its buyout, but still, he could have had a decent payday. It took some guts to come and face that crowd. He said he was nervous before he came.

Asked about his future, Petrino said he’s opening a couple of franchise gyms in Colorado with his son and is writing a book about football offenses. But his heart is in coaching. Saturdays, he said, “are a little boring right now. You know, the competitive spirit is still there and (I’m) trying to get myself in the best possible shape I can. If I get another opportunity to coach, I’m going to come out and do the best I can.”

Louisville gave him a second chance to do that. Arkansas won’t (although probably more than a few Arkansas football fans probably would at this point). But the Little Rock Touchdown Club did give him a chance to apologize, which he did – humbly and, unless I’m mistaken, quite sincerely.