As Alshon Jeffery continues to emerge as one of the NFL's budding stars at the wide receiver position, Lane Kiffin still can't get away from a nearly five-year-old comment that, among others, has stuck to Kiffin's reputation for petulance.
It began a couple of months after Jeffery signed with South Carolina in 2009, when Jeffery revealed that Kiffin, then coach at Tennessee, told him if he signed with South Carolina, he would end up pumping gas the rest of his life like other players from South Carolina who stayed home to play for the Gamecocks. Although Kiffin denied making the remark, Jeffery had the call on a speakerphone with a couple of corroborating witnesses.
Jeffery, of course, went on to a decorated college career with the Gamecocks and was a second-round NFL draft pick in 2012.
In the wake of Jeffery's 249-yard receiving effort against the Minnesota Vikings on Dec. 1, which put him over 1,000 receiving yards for the year, and a spectacular touchdown catch against the Dallas Cowboys on Monday night, Kiffin's suggestion has been dug up, villified, and lampooned all over again.
It's just a little too easy to pile on Kiffin these days, who has been absent from the public eye since his midseason firing from Southern Cal. It's more of a fair-game exercise when he is in charge of a program with the opportunity to either a) respond; or b) embarrass himself in a new way altogether. But for those who can't get enough Kiffin bashing, there is always plenty to drink at the trough.
*Follow Chase Goodbread on Twitter **@ChaseGoodbread*.
