Petrino agent says Blank meddled

ATLANTA (TICKER) —Bobby Petrino’s agent publicly defended the coach and attacked Atlanta Falcons owner Arthur Blank in a newspaper article published Friday.

Petrino on Tuesday suddenly resigned as the Falcons coach - after just 13 games - and announced he was accepting the same job at the University of Arkansas.

During a news conference regarding the matter a day later, Blank said he felt “a sense of betrayal.”

In a story published in Friday’s Birmingham News, agent Russ Campbell stated that Petrino had an issue with Blank “meddling” in football operations.

Additionally, Campbell is quoted as saying: “I told (Petrino) you can’t fix the fact that he’s miserable in the NFL and his family’s miserable in Atlanta.”

Campbell told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution on Friday he stands behind what he said in the story but has decided to make no further comment.

“We’ve decided that the best thing to do is to stand down,” Campbell told the Journal-Constitution. “Anything that is said now keeps us from turning the page.

“Bobby needs to move on and the Falcons need to move on. So we’re going to leave it at that.”