Stephen A. Smith not comfortable attending Lane Kiffin’s return to Ole Miss: ‘I’m not taking that chance’

Everyone expects a hostile environment when new LSU head coach Lane Kiffin returns to Ole Miss this weekend, too hostile for Stephen A. Smith to attend.

Smith defended Kiffin when he spurned Ole Miss for LSU nearly a year ago, generating headlines by suggesting Black athletes were hesitant to live and play in Oxford, Mississippi because of the state’s racial history and Confederate iconography. After receiving backlash for the comments, Smith later traveled to Ole Miss for a women’s basketball game and implied he would be willing to return for Kiffin’s first game back as head coach of LSU. But with Kiffin and LSU traveling to Ole Miss this weekend, Smith ultimately decided the environment might be too toxic for him.

“I was supposed to be going down there,” Smith said Thursday afternoon on his Mad Dog Sports Radio show for SiriusXM. “You know what? That’s what TVs are for. I ain’t going. They’re talking about heightened security, they’re talking about people having to wear bulletproof vests, they’re talking about the venom and hostility that’s gonna be aimed in his direction. They’re talking about some wild stuff that’s gonna go down there at Ole Miss this weekend.

“I want to state for the record, let’s be safe y’all. Let’s not engage in any kind of violence… Let’s make sure ladies and gentlemen that we’re all legit and aligned with that level of thinking. You can spew venom in Lane Kiffin’s direction and that of the players who represent him, you can boo the hell out of them. You can heckle them to death. Just don’t do nothing violent.”

Later in the show, Smith took a call from a listener who asked if Kiffin’s return to Ole Miss had the chance to be a “powder keg” environment.

“That’s why I’m not going,” Smith answered. “I am not trying to find myself in that mayhem. It would be one thing if I was going down with my buddies at College GameDay. But I would be going down there on my own…and I’m not taking that chance.”

Smith said he was treated well at Ole Miss when he attended a women’s basketball game last season, but he also recalled driving from New Orleans to Memphis a decade ago and having a less than pleasant experience at a gas station in Mississippi. Without being on assignment for ESPN, Smith would have to go on his own dime and planning, even though the network will be there. And without the backing of ESPN, Smith ultimately decided making the trek into what will likely be a hostile environment wasn’t worth the risk.