[NewChief]

I know that you all were terribly concerned about Bobby Petrino, so here's an update:
http://www.arkansassports360.com/305...BJDwo.facebook

Bahn: Petrino Family Won't Let Anything Keep Them From Football
by Chris Bahn
4/3/2012 at 8:05pm

Paul Petrino went to his office at the Broyles Athletic Complex on Monday and gathered up a few items that he figured would be essential to planning the week’s football practices. He then made his way to Physician’s Specialty Hospital in Fayetteville where his brother, Arkansas head coach Bobby Petrino, was being treated for an assortment of injuries following a motorcycle accident.

Their planning session, Paul said, was treated just like they were in a meeting room at the office.

Sure, Bobby Petrino was hospitalized Sunday evening after a 6:45 p.m. motorcycle accident left him with broken ribs, a chipped vertebrae and a serious case of road rash on his face. Yet here he was focused on football, refusing to let his condition keep him from work.

Petrino told family members, friends, recruits and employees he’d be back at practice on Tuesday. That was before doctors gave him their blessing.

None of this, of course, surprised Paul Petrino, the team's offensive coordinator.

“He’s a Petrino. Tough,” Paul said. “I never had no doubt he was going to be here. Most people wouldn’t have been, but there was never any doubt he would be here.”

Seeing Bobby Petrino back at work after a serious motorcycle wreck — one that happened without him wearing a helmet — wasn’t even No. 1 on the toughest moments list Paul would compile for his brother. There was a game in college where Petrino suffered a significant knee injury, but kept playing quarterback for the Carroll College Saints.

And Paul knows tough. Remember, he blew out a knee in drills during spring practice last season at Illinois and finished the day's work before seeking medial treatment for an injury that eventually required surgery.

This was, by the way, at least the second time the Petrino brothers have gotten together in a hospital and worked on football.

Back when they coached at Louisville, their father, Bob, was undergoing treatment for cancer. So Bobby and Paul gathered up their playbooks and worked through them as they waited out their father’s surgery.

There's just not much that can keep this away family from football. Even an accident that left Bobby Petrino in a brush pile on the side of Highway 16 nearly 23 miles outside of Fayetteville.

Doctors released Petrino from the hospital at approximately 11:30 a.m. He was back in the Broyles Complex for a meeting with compliance officer Jon pillowbiterg by 2:20 p.m. and then on to a team meeting and other duties before visiting with the press at 3:45 p.m.

Why? Why come back so soon?

“Because I love coaching and I love watching us practice and I want to see our players improve,” Petrino said

Even in recounting his accident, detailing his injuries and explaining why he was back at work so quickly, Petrino was coaching up his team. He made sure to tell reporters where he wanted the Razorbacks to improve this week.

Not surprisingly, Petrino chose mental toughness as the day's theme.

“We have to get tougher mentally,” Petrino said. "Last week’s practices were hard because I am not sure we have ever had heat like this in the month of [March] so it challenged them with their conditioning and their mental toughness.”

What choice does the team have at this point, but to listen and take that message to heart? It’s not like players made a habit of complaining to Petrino. They didn’t go around not providing maximum effort, but Petrino, who's motto is "It's a show me world," has provided an example of just the sort of resiliency he wants from his players.

There he was Tuesday, wearing a neck brace and watching practice from inside a box at Razorback Stadium. Petrino was joined by his wife, Becky; son, Bobby; daughter, Kelsey and granddaughter Briana. Once he finished watching they joined him in a Razorback golf cart and they were driven away from the stadium.

Athletic Director Jeff Long said he urged Petrino to take time to recover. Long told Petrino not to feel the need to rush back to practice.

“We’ll be advising him along the way,” Long said “Now, whether he takes that advice or not that remains to be seen.”

Don’t count on it.

Paul Petrino said there’s no chance of talking his brother into something he doesn’t want to do. That just isn’t happening. Paul didn’t even bother trying to convince his brother to skip work.

We're talking football, after all.

“I’m not going to talk him out of anything,” Paul Petrino said. “I mean, I just look at what’s best for him and do everything I can to make it easier on him. I just do my job and that’s to motivate the players and the coaches and do everything I can to give him as little worries as he can.

“You’re not going to keep him away.”

His presser today was hilariously BMFP, especially considering the dude has to be on some serious pain meds. He has several broken ribs and cracked vertebrae.