Let’s start with the obvious: Ole Miss’ DeSanto Rollins deserved better from head coach Lane Kiffin.
The junior defensive tackle from Baton Rouge is suing the school and Kiffin for “failure to provide equal protection, racial and sexual discrimination, and multiple other allegations,” according to a report Thursday from ESPN’s Heather Dinich.
It’s hard to hear the story of a player like Rollins — a young athlete struggling with physical and emotional trauma — without conjuring up the cliched image of a head coach sitting on a recruit’s couch and explaining to his parents how their son will be treated like his own child. Kiffin failed there. No question.
We know this because Rollins recorded an incredulous Kiffin kicking him off the team for not meeting with him for weeks while he was in the middle of a mental health crisis. ESPN reported it heard the audio but had not independently verified it.
More importantly, we also know Kiffin did not see their relationship as that of a father figure and son or even as a coach and player, but as boss and employee. Kiffin made that exceptionally clear in explaining why Rollins — who claims he stepped away from the team temporarily on the advice of the school’s assistant athletic director for sport psychology to address his mental health — would no longer be welcome in the locker room (Rollins’ name is still on the team roster and the school says he’s still on athletic scholarship).
Kiffin: OK, so what are you doing? [Y]ou just, after two weeks of not showing up. What’s going on? You came to say you’re quitting?
Rollins: What do you mean two weeks of not showing up?
Kiffin: You haven’t been here for two weeks.
Rollins: I told Coach Savage I was going to take a mental break
Kiffin: OK, you have a f****** head coach, this is a job, guess what, if I have mental health issues and I’m not diminishing them, I can’t not see my f****** boss, when you were told again and again the head coach needs to see you, wasn’t to make you practice, wasn’t to play a position don’t f****** want to, ok, it was to talk to you and explain to you in the real world, ok, so I don’t give a f*** what your mom says, ok, or what you think in the real f****** world you show up to work … you show up when your head-when your boss wants to meet with you.”
There are myriad reasons why Kiffin’s alleged comments are abhorrent, but the one that sticks out is his assertion that in the “real ******* world” you show up when your boss calls you in.
It’s actually good to know Kiffin views his players as employees, even if it’s just in this specific case. It’s the latest encapsulation of why student athletes need to unionize.
Because in the real world, when a full-time employee at Ole Miss is suffering from a mental health crisis, there are resources for them to secure accommodations so it doesn’t put their job at risk. The university’s own policies ensure it. The school also must abide by the Family and Medical Leave Act to ensure employees’ jobs are protected while on unpaid leave for qualified medical and family reasons.
In the recording, Kiffin allegedly mocked Rollins by pointing out that if he tried to tell Ole Miss athletic director Keith Carter he wasn’t going to show up to work or meet with him for two weeks, he’d be fired on the spot. But according to Ole Miss’ and federal policies, Kiffin’s job would be secure if the state of his mental health demanded time away. (It’s worth noting if a faculty or staff member spoke to a student the way Kiffin allegedly spoke to Rollins, they’re the ones who would face severe reprimand.)
Theoretically, this should be the NCAA’s job since Power Five conferences guaranteed access to mental health services in 2019. But that ship sailed long ago for an institution that can barely keep track of its own rules and who is subject to them.
So who’s left to look out for the players if not themselves?
The alleged interaction at Ole Miss is just a small glimpse into the much larger dysfunction college athletes have to accept if they want to play in school. But Kiffin’s words will ring loud and clear around the sport.
“See ya, Go, go, and guess what, we can kick you off the team, so go read your f***ing rights about mental health, we can kick you off the team,” Kiffin allegedly said.
He might not have meant to advocate players’ rights, but in an absurd power trip, the Ole Miss boss provided one of the best examples for why they’re so desperately needed.