Someone take Arthur Blank's shoelaces away from him and put him on suicide watch. The day after his multi-million dollar franchise quarterback was sentence to 23 months in prison for leading a dog fighting ring and breaking the terms of his pre-sentencing restrictions, the Atlanta Falcons lost their coach Tuesday. 

But don't chalk this loss of former coach Bobby Petrino up to bad decision making or the injury of a player, chalk it up to cowardice and a coach who was in over his head from the beginning.

Following last season's departure of coach Mike Shula, who had openly lobbied for a job in the college ranks, Blank went out and hired Petrino, the coach who had brought little ol' Louisville to national prominence with a run-and-gun style of offense. The Falcons hoped Petrino would figure out a way to utilize the vast athletic talents of their star quarterback Michael Vick. All he ended up figuring out was the fastest route out of Atlanta  once he realized that coaching in the NFL required more than he could offer.

Petrino did not retreat to the cozy confines of the head coach's office at the University of Arkansas because of the loss one player to jail and several more to injury, he just got to a breaking point where he realized he did not have what it takes to be an NFL coach.

Now Blank is left with a star player he treated like a son and a coach nobody ever believed in, and he lost them both after the lied to his face. Vick said he was turning his life and career around and could be a leader off the field. Petrino said he was committed to leading the Falcons back to the Super Bowl. Neither of those men really believed they had it in them. But those paychecks sure did look sweet.

The little college coach who couldn't in the NFL is leaving the pros after only 13 games, about the length of the average college football season. I'm sure those truncated seasons, and all of those pliable 18 year-olds will look a lot better to Petrino than attempting to cut it in the 20-hour workday of the NFL.

Petrino now joins the ranks of the Nick Sabans of the world. But at least Saban lasted two years with the Miami Dolphins before cutting and running. I imagine that owners and GMs will be a little more hesitant to hire college coaches to make the leap when there are so many able coordinators and assistant coaches out there, coaches who have endured the pressure of the pro game and have been put through the crucible at the highest level.

And that's exactly where Blank should focus his attention now that the thin-skinned Petrino has jumped ship. Find an assistant who has trained under one of the NFL greats, or better yet, give Bill Cowher a call, he has to be sick of being a stuffed suit in the studio.

The fact of the matter is the Falcons are in a tough situation that doesn't seem to be close to getting better any time soon. Blank will need to bring in a coach who can handle criticism and rough sports. Petrino failed under the pressure and never had control of the situation. He was a notoriously bad communicator, such as when he failed to tell Joey Harrington directly that he had been benched, who did not treat his players as men. So let the coward go running back to a college campus where he can be the big man whose word is never questioned; it's the perfect escape for a coward.