FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — Bobby Petrino talked time and again about winning a national championship at Arkansas. From the day he was hired in 2007, Petrino never wavered in that goal or belief.

Petrino won’t have that chance now, felled by scandal, and he blamed no one but himself for being fired.

“The simplest response I have is: I’m sorry,” he said. “These two words seem very inadequate. But that is my heart.”

Athletic director Jeff Long dumped Petrino on Tuesday and laid out a stunning laundry list of misdeeds against the man he hired away from the Atlanta Falcons four years ago.

He ripped Petrino for hiring his mistress and for intentionally misleading him about the secret relationship that was laid bare following their April 1 motorcycle ride together that ended in a crash. He said Petrino missed multiple chances over the past 10 days to come clean about an affair that had crossed the line from infidelity into workplace favoritism.

“He made the decision, a conscious decision, to mislead the public on Tuesday, and in doing so negatively and adversely affected the reputation of the University of Arkansas and our football program,” Long said, choking up as he discussed telling players that their coach was gone. “In short, coach Petrino engaged in a pattern of misleading and manipulative behavior designed to deceive me and members of the athletic staff, both before and after the motorcycle accident.”