The future of Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin is one of the hottest topics in college football. Several reports have linked him to the open head coaching positions at Florida and LSU. The debate intensified Wednesday on ESPN’s First Take, where host Stephen A. Smith took aim at Oxford, Mississippi with guest Paul Finebaum. He suggested Kiffin might be better off elsewhere than Ole Miss.
“He’s in Oxford, Mississippi. OK? Let’s get this out of the way. Ladies and gentlemen — and 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,” Smith said during the Wednesday broadcast. “Compared to Gainesville or Baton Rouge, Louisiana, let’s just call it what it is.”
Smith’s remarks drew swift criticism from SEC fans during The Paul Finebaum Show on Wednesday. Finebaum, who appeared alongside Smith and Chris “Mad Dog” Russo on First Take earlier in the day, rebuked Smith for making race a factor in the discussion of Kiffin’s options.
“I realize a lot of you did not see what Stephen A. said, but he clearly made it racial,” Finebaum said during the 4 p.m. ET hour. “He said, in his words: ‘the brothers do not want to go to Oxford, Mississippi,’ which I think has been proven completely incorrect. I’ve been to Oxford a million times, and it’s terribly unfair to bring up echoes of 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 a utopia is baffling to me.”
Finebaum’s comments followed a caller to his program who criticized Smith’s segment for perceived prejudice. “What’s wrong with Oxford, Mississippi? We’re SEC. We’re the best,” according to the caller.
Stephen A. Smith has not responded to Finebaum’s claim his comments were racial.
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Stephen A is the biggest racist in sports television today. But somehow ESPN just let it go by. If a white person said half the things he does, they would be suspended. From the fact that every black player is known as “the BROTHA” and in any controversy he always stands behind the black player. His trips this week to HBCUs with cam and RC are further promotion of his black only attitude.