Lane Kiffin Race Comments Spark Debate 😳 Rob Parker: “I’d NEVER Go to Ole Miss.”

Added: 2026-05-14

[00:00:00]This is an important topic. We want to get there and we want to get we want to get people involved in this. I really do.

[00:00:05]>> We do these. Well, Rob, I say >> and it is, like we said, a little bit heavy for a Tuesday, but we got to get to it.

[00:00:10]>> So, Lane Kein is back in the headlines as he's been want to do. This is not unusual for Lane Kein. What is unusual is for him to be in the headlines for this reason, right? He did an an interview with Vanity Fair and in explaining his decision to leave Miss for LSU, >> Lane Keifin suggested that Miss's struggle to distance itself from symbols like the Confederate flag, Colonel Rebel, and even the nickname Miss itself was problematic. He said when he was coaching there, top recruits would tell him, quote, "Hey coach, we really like you, but my grandparents aren't letting me move to Oxford, Mississippi." That doesn't come up when you say Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Parents were sitting here this weekend saying the campus's diversity feels so great and it feels like there's no segregation. Now, obviously, because he is a coach, he's a public figure. He knows he kind of tapped the the tiger on the tail there.

[00:01:04]He kind of walked it back a little bit just saying that this is something we've been struggling with for a long time, all coaches. And his comments were not calculated. He apologized if he offended anybody at all miss.

[00:01:16]>> And you know what?

[00:01:17]>> What's that?

[00:01:17]>> He couldn't help himself but to uh speak the gospel and the truth. And Kelvin, I'm going to I'm going to just be real on this. Mhm.

[00:01:25]>> All things being equal and I had a chance to go to um a school to play college football and a full scholarship and miss was amongst them and I had another opportunity to go somewhere else in the same situation. There's no way I could play for Old Miss. I I I just couldn't get past all of the stuff that has happened. the stuff that he talked about, even the nickname Old Miss has a connotation, right, of the plantation mistress.

[00:01:58]Um, the Confederate flag being flown, all of the other symbols that would not make to me >> uh a black man comfortable. I would not under any circumstance play for Old Miss. I I I they could offer me the starting quarterback job, starting running back job. I'm always amazed when I see black players play there. I just I couldn't do it. Now, only the only ounce, Kelvin, I could say >> is if that's the only way you could get to college and you feel you have no other situation, you know what I mean?

[00:02:37]No other scholarship on the table, maybe I could say this is his only means of trying to get an education. I'm not going to be against anybody trying to better themselves and to obtain a education, but if everything else is the same and I have other options, I'd rather not. And Lane Kein, you could I know the people down at Old Miss, they're going to be mad and and this and that and act like, oh, what are you saying about us and that's unfair? It's not unfair. This is this is a part of your history, what you're wrapped into. And if those guys and those people aren't on the football team, I doubt they have much use for them other than, you know what I mean, for their athletics.

[00:03:21]So that's where I am. I love that Len Keifin brought it up because it is true and and and it has he's being honest that this is what recruits and what he say and their grandparents and parents are like, "You can't play there. We don't want you to go there." Like like straight up >> and for and for a reason. It's a that's real. That is real stuff people don't want to hear. But Kelvin, that's me. I could not play at Old Miss.

[00:03:45]>> So I think he touched on something that had not been discussed often, right? Cuz we talk about where a team is in the poll, their rankings, the new recruits. We don't often talk about the life and what happens to those players when they're on the teams. And I think there's a people misconstrue what it's like to be a star player on a team. So, if you're the star quarterback, star running back, somebody on Old Miss, yeah, life might be a little different for you, right? You might be all right on campus, everybody loves you, you're signing autographs, life's good at the times. The problem with cities like in areas like that, if we're just having a real conversation often times can be off the campus, Rob, you know this. You you know this. You're in right now, you're in the blackest city in America. This is a real conversation.

[00:04:32]>> Detroit, what was it like for you being on the outer skirts of that, driving around at night? Tell the truth.

[00:04:38]>> Yeah, it was not good. And I used to get pulled over all the time that for no I I didn't get one ticket. Just pulled over cuz they were fishing. Hoping I guess maybe that I had something. Where you coming from? What are you doing driving on Woodward Avenue at 1:00?

[00:04:52]>> A nice car. What are you doing? Yeah.

[00:04:54]What are you doing over here? They They didn't know I had a radio show and I had just got off the air. They didn't know that.

[00:04:59]>> And And my bring that up to say often times where you get this stuff is Yeah.

[00:05:03]if they go to they go to the cafe and they eat and they go to their dorm room they go to practice lifestyle can be all right the challenges are when they go to that party off campus right when you talk and you've been around athletes for so long as have I and I've experienced it growing up in Ann Arbor Michigan which is a diverse town yeah but it was a lot of issues for us growing up we go hang out downtown on campus and Michigan's campus police would mess with us flashlight in our face break it up >> who are you what's going on if for me and four or five of my guys. Meanwhile, I would see my white counterparts and I'm just telling Nick my truth. They'll be over there hanging out loud, drunk, knowing underage drinking, campus fat, and they would literally looking at them having the time of their life. And I would like So much so, Rob, that in high school I brought this up. They had a we had a diversity uh big huge auditorium assembly and I spoke about that in high school as a senior. I said, "We go hang out and we go play. We get mad. We get harassed. We get pulled over. Dude, it it was so much that happened. It became regular. Unfortunately, you show up to go play like with your boys, play a video game night. Why you late? Oh man, I got pulled over. And we all happened, man. They searched the car, they did this, they threw me on the car, whatever. We Oh man, they got you again.

[00:06:19]And you would just move on. And so I say this to say those grandparents, those parents, those folks, sometimes they're saying, "Hey, it ain't just on the field. It's how is my son, my grandson going to live off the field? What is it going to be like for them culturally?

[00:06:33]What is are the systems around there? Is there systemic racism around them in those towns? And I'm not saying every person obviously or every single town in and around that area, but that is stuff that happens to them. I'm a living witness. You are too where you have these issues, these challenges. You go through things. And I can see absolutely a parent saying, "Well, if you're a starting linebacker and and and Old Miss want you, well, that means Utah might want you. Uh uh you know, uh like we mentioned, Ohio State might want you.

[00:07:00]Miami might want you. Somebody else might want you where we can get in in better situations. But often times, Rob, these college towns are in towns that may not be the most diverse or the most accepting. Let's just keep it real. And so when you have conversations with a lot of college athletes, you hear a lot of them specifically black. You talk about you hear their stories off the field. You hear what it was like for them off going to this particular lunch here and having, you know, a girlfriend who lived over there. and you hear about stuff that they experienced off campus.

[00:07:30]They're stars on campus, right? They're they're they can be they can be coddled and kind of, you know, uh we're going to keep everything perfectly aligned for you. It's the experience off campus, around the town, around the city that they go through a lot of things. And I can completely understand that. And again, him bringing that up that that was that was a loud message that I think a lot of conversations might start being had like where parents say, "Hey, you know, I never thought about this. What is your experience like right now to their son? What did you go through that when you played there? Are you going through this now? I think some conversations might be had because of what he said. He might not have meant to do that. He being L given, but he opened up uh Pandora's box.

[00:08:06]>> Yeah, it's good to have that conversation. And he was just being honest about the difference.