Arkansas got it right, Miami almost did

Bobby Petrino

Jessica Dorrell

I was hearing a lot of talk yesterday morning on sports radio concerning whether (1) University Arkansas head football coach Bobby Petrino and Miami Marlins manager Ozzie Guillen should have been fired.

Petrino had to go. Not only was the married father of four having a extra-marital sexual affair with 25-year-old former University of Arkansas volleyball player Jessica Dorrell, he makes sure she beats out 155 other applicants for a plum position on his staff, after which he writes her a check for $20,000. And when confronted about all of this by university athletic director Jeff Long after Petrino and Dorrell are involved in a motorcycle accident. Petrino, in effect, tells his boss, with Dorrell present, "Hey, there’s no hanky-panky going on between us. We’re just work colleagues." When the evidence Petrino was lying became insurmountable, Long had no choice but to show Petrino the road out of Fayetteville, even though the coach had taken the Razorbacks to a 9-2 record and a spot in the Sugar Bowl last season.

Ozzie Guillen

Guillen’s motor-mouth got him in trouble again. He told a Time magazine reporter that he actually respected Cuban dictator Fidel Castro because he remained in power for as long as he did. Now the Marlins’ prime audience is comprised of Cuban exiles living in Florida, many of whom had family members tortured and/or put to death by the Castro regime. In fact, the team’s just-opened stadium is nestled in the Miami neighborhood known as Little Havana. Castro is regarded in Little Havana the way Adolph Hitler is in the Lower East Side of Manhattan. South Florida political leaders of Cuban extraction demanded Guillen’s immediate dismissal and were outraged when the team only gave him a five-game suspension. Now they are threatening to organize a boycott of Marlins home games.

I also thought the punishment against Guillen was light — a 30-game ban would have been more appropriate. But the Marlins shouldn’t dismiss him.

Why? Because in this country we have this little thing known as a Constitutional protection of free speech, under which, anything short of shouting "Fire!" in a crowded movie theater or "Charlize Theron is walking naked down the halls" in a men’s prison is permissible. That means no matter how distasteful you find someone’s speech to be — whether they be Larry Flynt, Timothy McVeigh or even Rick Santorum — they have the right to spew whatever they desire.

Guillen’s protected; Petrino had no safety net.