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Lane Kiffin seems to be weighing his future at Ole Miss, and it’s a hot button topic on sports talk shows.
ESPN’s “First Take,” with Stephen A. Smith, Paul Finebaum and Christopher “Mad Dog” Russo discussed whether Kiffin should stay with the Rebels long term, as several other college and NFL jobs have opened up in recent weeks.
Smith, though, insinuated that some Black players would prefer to play elsewhere.
“I’mma bring it home, alright? … Y’all can’t say it. Leave it to me, I’ll say it — the brothers ain’t trying to come to Oxford, Mississippi, for the most part, compared to Gainesville or Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Let’s just call it what it is,” Smith said on “First Take.”
Finebaum did not respond to Smith on the air but made his feelings known on his own radio show later in the day.
“He clearly made it racial,” Finebaum said. “He clearly said, in his words, ‘The brothers do not want to go to Oxford, Mississippi,’ which has been proven to be completely incorrect. I’ve been to Oxford a million times, and I think it’s terribly unfair to bring up echoes of yesteryear, the ’60s, and try to portray Oxford as that type of place today. It’s not. The south has changed. You can make your own interpretation, but to dump on Oxford while saying Gainesville and Baton Rouge would be utopia was just baffling to me.”
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Smith also suggested racial implications when the Miami Dolphins and former general manager Chris Grier, who is Black, parted ways.
“This is BS. That’s the first fire? Really? That’s what we’re doing?’ It was about Tua [Tagovailoa]. It was about Mike McDaniel. And the brother gets fired first?” Smith said when the news broke while he was on “First Take.”
“I’m not saying that he don’t deserve it because of the way they look. You’re at the helm, I got it. I understand it. I’m all for brothers as head coaches and GMs. We know what battles I’ve been fighting for over 30 years. I got it,” Smith continued. “But when you don’t get the job done, you don’t get the damn job done. I got it. Don’t tell me it’s just him. Don’t tell me we gonna leave Mike McDaniel in place, and we’re just gonna fire him and we’re gonna move that. Damn that. I’m waiting for more news.”
McDaniel, who still has his job, has African American ancestry from his grandmother.
Kiffin has been with Ole Miss since 2020 after prior stops at Florida Atlantic, USC and Tennessee. He was the offensive coordinator at Alabama between his gigs at USC and FAU. There has been speculation he could join former Ole Miss quarterback Jaxson Dart with the New York Giants — Dart’s father even texted the coach, but Kiffin apparently said New York was “too cold.”
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