Former Arkansas coach Bobby Petrino filled with regret over affair

In his first interview in months, former University of Arkansas football coach Bobby Petrino expressed deep remorse for his affair with a 25-year-old former Arkansas athlete who he hired in the football office.

Petrino, who was fired in April after details of the relationship were uncovered, said he wakes up every morning filled with regret.

Petrino lost $21 million in potential earnings and said he jeopardized his relationship with his wife and children.

“How could I put what we had in jeopardy?” Petrino said in an interview with ESPN. “This is what I wake up early every morning thinking about, what I lay in bed thinking about. Why?”

“Looking at the look in her eyes,” Petrino said of his wife, Becky, “how I could possibly do something like this, to hurt her. The anger. The feeling of, ‘How could you possibly do this to me?’ ”

Petrino said his four children are having a difficult time forgiving him.

“It’s hard for them to understand how I could do this, how I could hurt their mother,” he said.

Petrino’s affair with Jessica Dorrell was uncovered after he crashed his motorcycle while she was a passenger on it.

“I’ve gone over it a number of times in my mind,” Petrino said. “How did I end up off the road? I’m still not exactly sure. I don’t know how I ended up in that ditch.”

Petrino said immediately after the crash, he realized his world was about to crumble.

“There is no justification,” Petrino said. “There is no excuse for having her in the interview pool, hiring her, having her on the back of the motorcycle. I look back on it and there is no good answer. I wasn’t thinking and I wasn’t acting correctly.”

ALSO:

Kobe helps U.S. reach basketball semifinals

Allyson Felix wins her first gold in the 200 meters

Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh Jennings win gold again