By Lauren Havens | LTVN Broadcast Reporter
Lane Kiffin leaving Ole Miss to coach LSU right before playoffs last year is was not taken lightly by fans — and honestly, rightfully so.
College football fans are allowed to be upset at Lane Kiffin’s decision. They can criticize the way he chose to leave Ole Miss, boo him when he walks onto the field and make him the butt of their game day rivalry jokes. What should not happen is turning his daughter into a sick sexual punchline for the sake of a football game.
Before Lane’s return to Ole Miss, this time as LSU’s head coach, photos circulated online of banners that were made in preparation of the big game. The banners placed Landry Kiffin, Lane’s daughter, as the subject of vulgar sexual comments that connected her to a former Ole Miss football player — someone Landry claimed she had never even met.
The moment those banners were made as a way to hate on Lane, it stopped being ordinary rivalry humor. Women receiving backlash for someone else’s mistakes is a common problem in today’s world, and there’s nothing funny about it.
Landry is not Lane. She had no control in whether or not her dad left, stayed, won or lost.
The only thing she had control over was where she wanted to go to school, and she decided to stay at Ole Miss. Landry did not have to stay, she could have followed her father, but instead she publicly spoke about how much she loved and cared for Ole Miss.
Unfortunately, this kind of behavior extends much further than college football. More often than not, when public controversy involves men, women connected to them are dragged into the situation even if they don’t have anything to do with it.
And what’s worse, is it’s not uncommon for jokes and comments to turn sexual, focusing on the woman’s body, relationships or rumored sexual past instead of anything she’s actually done.
That isn’t criticism or ordinary hate, it’s humiliation by association over something the woman can’t control.
Calling something a joke does not make it harmless, and even Landry ended up speaking out about how hurtful the comments were.
College football rivalries are intense by nature, and that’s the fun of it. But Lane is right there. Put his name on banners and question his choices — don’t make his daughter receive backlash for a choice she didn’t make.
