As a general rule it's probably best for your mom never to talk about you with the media. Moms aren't exactly known for being shy or discrete when it comes to telling you exactly what they think about your opinions of their sons. Especially if your opinion is anything other than their son is the greatest human being to ever live. I once caught my mom commenting on an Outkick article. She was upset with what someone had said about me. I had to ban her from commenting on Outkick. Or responding to Tweets or commenting on Facebook. That's what moms do, they believe, to their son's eternal benefits, that all of us are perfect and that every single person who feels otherwise is an imbecile. (It just so happens my mom is right about all my critics, but still...)
So it was probably inevitable that Lane Kiffin's mom would finally decide to speak her mind about what people think about her son. And she decided to do it this week with Alabama preparing to return to Tennessee.
I'd encourage all of you to go read Jon Solomon's piece on Lane Kiffin here. It's a well done profile of Kiffin's life, but I only really care about the quotes form his mom. Which I've pulled out for you.
Here's Kiffin's mom on the Tosh.0 video that went viral last week. Kiffin's mom didn't like that video:
"Lane sent it to me on a family group text," said Robin Kiffin, Lane's mother. "It was awful. That language is horrible. ... They never leave him alone. I don't see them picking on anybody else like that. That guy at Texas Tech (Mike Leach), he locked a quarterback in a shed and he gets another job. Are they still talking about that? No. The Arkansas guy (Bobby Petrino) gets caught on a motorcycle wreck with another woman and he gets another job. Are they talking about him? No."
She also is worried about her son's safety on his return to Knoxville.
"I'm scared to death for his safety," Robin Kiffin said of Saturday's game. "Some people were visiting us last weekend from Tennessee and they said they better not let him on the sideline (where Kiffin coaches at Alabama), they should put him in the press box. I want him to be in the press box."
And she thinks his media and fan misperception of her son is fueled by his sense of humor:
"I think he tries to be funny sometimes," Robin Kiffin said. "The same thing happens to me. I'll do something and Monte will say, 'What in the world did you say that for?' I say, 'It's funny.' He'll say, 'No, it's not.'"
You ready for the most mom story ever? Here it is:
She (Lane's mom) recalled how Lane was once nominated by a high school teacher for student of the month because every day he carried on a conversation with an autistic student who got ignored by other kids.
Lane's mom also thinks Tennessee fans tried to burn down her house by throwing a cigar on the balcony:
"Their house was very hard to find and there were people looking into their window that night," Robin Kiffin said. "When my movers went several months later to move my stuff, people were yelling stuff at my movers and someone threw a cigar on our balcony and tried to burn our house down. It was all very unsettling for this to happen over a football coach."
What about Lane's sideline demeanor? He just can't win:
"They said he wasn't rowdy enough on the sideline and wasn't Pete Carroll," Robin Kiffin said. "Now at Alabama, Saban says that's what he likes best about him, the calmness on the sideline. It's like he can't do anything right."
Why do people hate Lane Kiffin?
According to his mom, it's jealousy. Everyone is jealous of her son for "his success at such a young age and for having a beautiful wife."
