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Mac & Bone Show - John Talty Interview · Mac & Bone Podcast

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: John Tulte, CBS National College football reporter. It's Lane Kiffin week,
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: and his book is out there, and what better time
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: to talk to him than this week with Lane going
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: back to Ole Miss. The book is Lane Being Lane.
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: It is the story of all things Lane as a
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: coach and a person, and John Tulte joins us to
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: talk about that book here on the Mac and Bone Show. John,
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: thanks for coming on, man.
• 0:23
  Speaker 2: How you doing? Doing great.
• 0:25
  Speaker 3: Appreciate you guys having me on.
• 0:26
  Speaker 2: Appreciate you, man.
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: And I'm guessing this book is going to fly off
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: the shelves this week with so much focus on Lane Kiffin.
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: Let's start with one of the things that made headlines.
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: One of the excerpts from your book that was talked
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: about a lot a couple of weeks ago. I can't
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: hold back. I have to go to the Joey Freshwater era.
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: I have to go to some of the time in
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: Alabama where you write about Lane Kiffin's you know, uh,
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: edict to a staffer to make sure you keep them
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: away from the sorority girls and college girls and all that. Um, uh, what,
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: what was, how, how crazy, how, how crazy and wild
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: was Lane, uh, away from the game back in, in
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: his younger days like that?
• 1:15
  Speaker 3: Yeah. Pretty wild. I guess it's kind of an understatement.
• 1:18
  Speaker 3: But what's, what's funny about it is like, I think
• 1:21
  Speaker 3: some of us heard that stuff and I covered Alabama
• 1:24
  Speaker 3: during that stretch. And so like you'd be getting texts
• 1:27
  Speaker 3: at one 30 in the morning about Wayne showing up
• 1:29
  Speaker 3: at bars and like, that's, unique. And so I had
• 1:32
  Speaker 3: heard stories over the years, but I probably didn't know
• 1:34
  Speaker 3: the full extent of it until I started working on
• 1:38
  Speaker 3: this book. And so I think it's a combination of
• 1:40
  Speaker 3: factors of why it fascinates us. One, Joey Freshwater is
• 1:44
  Speaker 3: just an objectively hilarious name to tell people. It's a
• 1:49
  Speaker 3: classic Lane Kiffin thing, right? Of all the names that
• 1:51
  Speaker 3: you could choose, Joey Freshwater is hilarious. So I give
• 1:55
  Speaker 3: him credit for that. But two, it's the fact that
• 2:01
  Speaker 3: In Alabama, he at that time was one of the
• 2:03
  Speaker 3: most famous people. So him thinking that this would in
• 2:06
  Speaker 3: any way be something he could pull off speaks to
• 2:10
  Speaker 3: sometimes the naivety of Lane Kiffin, where he gets himself
• 2:14
  Speaker 3: in trouble and doesn't always realize the chaos he's creating.
• 2:18
  Speaker 3: He could have done that in L.A., some of the
• 2:22
  Speaker 3: other places he's been. In Tuscaloosa, Alabama, when you're Nick
• 2:25
  Speaker 3: Saban's offensive coordinator, You're the number three, probably number two
• 2:28
  Speaker 3: or number three, most famous person in the state. And
• 2:30
  Speaker 3: so the Joey freshwater thing got leaked pretty fast during
• 2:34
  Speaker 3: that era. And then it's just like, just, I think
• 2:37
  Speaker 3: the dichotomy between Dick Saban is like very, you know, solid, uh,
• 2:43
  Speaker 3: you know, someone who you don't expect to be probably
• 2:46
  Speaker 3: staying up past 9 PM and, you know, waking up
• 2:49
  Speaker 3: at 4 AM. And then you've got his office, a
• 2:51
  Speaker 3: coordinator who you see saving screaming at the sidelines, every game,
• 2:56
  Speaker 3: who's evidently staying out until two, 3 AM out of
• 2:59
  Speaker 3: the town, chasing women and drinking and all these different things.
• 3:03
  Speaker 3: And so it's just an incredible contrast between those two guys.
• 3:07
  Speaker 3: I thought it was important to delve into some of
• 3:09
  Speaker 3: that stuff. Not just not to be tawdry or gossipy,
• 3:12
  Speaker 3: but I think it helps you understand why there was
• 3:15
  Speaker 3: so much, so much friction between Nick Saban and Lane Kiffin.
• 3:19
  Speaker 3: It's not just the fact that they annoyed each other
• 3:22
  Speaker 3: in the building. It was that Nick Saban also had
• 3:25
  Speaker 3: to hear all these stories and, around town about what
• 3:28
  Speaker 3: lane was allegedly doing and that just i think amplified
• 3:32
  Speaker 3: all those you know hurt feelings and things like that.
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: But now bone they're the john now they're like they
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: have this friendship this mentorship you know it's it's just
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: it's it's it what i'm telling you the dude's interesting
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: as hell man no doubt.
• 3:44
  Speaker 4: John what is something you learned in doing this book
• 3:47
  Speaker 4: about lane that surprised you that you didn't know before.
• 3:52
  Speaker 3: I think for me, I didn't really know anything about
• 3:56
  Speaker 3: probably pre-USC assistant Lane Kiffin. I obviously knew he's Monty
• 4:01
  Speaker 3: Kiffin's son and Monty Kiffin, the legendary defensive coordinator of
• 4:04
  Speaker 3: the Tampa Bucks and all that. But I didn't really
• 4:08
  Speaker 3: know what was 10-year-old Lane Kiffin like? What was high
• 4:12
  Speaker 3: school quarterback Lane Kiffin like? What was college Lane Kiffin like?
• 4:17
  Speaker 3: think is so fun. I think what, what your listeners
• 4:20
  Speaker 3: will really enjoy is like, you see the same guy
• 4:23
  Speaker 3: even back then, right? Like if the stakes are lower, um,
• 4:27
  Speaker 3: and for instance, there was an excerpt USA today, the
• 4:29
  Speaker 3: other day, uh, about Lane Kiffin insisting on wearing, um,
• 4:33
  Speaker 3: the like streamer towels, you know, like Deon Sanders used
• 4:36
  Speaker 3: to have, um, and he, and he like insisted on
• 4:39
  Speaker 3: wearing them as a high school safety. And his coach
• 4:42
  Speaker 3: was like, you can't wear them. He's like, I'm wearing them.
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  Speaker 3: It's like, okay, then you're going to run the Hills
• 4:46
  Speaker 3: after the game. If you wear them, he's like, okay.
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  Speaker 3: And he just kept doing it. And like, that's just
• 4:51
  Speaker 3: like push the envelope.
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: Right.
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  Speaker 3: And so I love some of those stories just because
• 4:57
  Speaker 3: I really didn't know that much about them. And I
• 5:00
  Speaker 3: think When you learn his interesting family dynamic of being
• 5:04
  Speaker 3: the son of a coach who's not around a lot,
• 5:07
  Speaker 3: his mom has a personality very similar to his, which
• 5:10
  Speaker 3: I didn't know. You can imagine the battles those two
• 5:14
  Speaker 3: could have had. Two quick-witted people who like to dig
• 5:18
  Speaker 3: knives in each other. That was super interesting to me.
• 5:21
  Speaker 3: I think it just helps inform... and entertain, like, who
• 5:25
  Speaker 3: this guy is. And, you know, you can understand why
• 5:29
  Speaker 3: 51-year-old Lane, some of the things he does now, kind
• 5:32
  Speaker 3: of the foundation of that was when he's 16 in
• 5:35
  Speaker 3: Minnesota and doing some stuff he probably shouldn't have been.
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  Speaker 1: John Talti, CBS Sports, great college, National College football writer,
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  Speaker 1: has a book that just is about one of the
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: most interesting characters in the world of sports. It's Lane
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: being Lane about Lane Kiffin. It's available now. John, it's
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: LSU Ole Miss week, right? It's going to be a
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: ridiculous scene in Oxford. I know you write about the tense,
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: you know, bitter parting of ways and Lane trying to, hey,
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: I want to take this player. I want to take
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: this coach with me. I mean, how nasty was it
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: behind the scenes? I know you paint that picture in
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: the book.
• 6:15
  Speaker 3: It got very ugly behind the scenes. And I think
• 6:18
  Speaker 3: there are a couple of things there why it did.
• 6:22
  Speaker 3: And I think the number one thing, and again, I'll
• 6:25
  Speaker 3: go back to what I was saying earlier about understanding
• 6:29
  Speaker 3: young Lane to understand current Lane. There's a great line
• 6:32
  Speaker 3: in the book where Monty Kiffin, Lane's dad, tells Lane's
• 6:37
  Speaker 3: high school coach, I just don't think I've said no
• 6:40
  Speaker 3: enough to Lane. And that was one of his fears.
• 6:42
  Speaker 3: And so flash forward 30 years, Ole Miss never said
• 6:46
  Speaker 3: no to lane. They gave him everything he wanted. You
• 6:48
  Speaker 3: need this, you need that. They gave everything to him.
• 6:52
  Speaker 3: And so Wayne expected when he wanted to coach the
• 6:55
  Speaker 3: team in the playoff and still go to LSU, that
• 6:58
  Speaker 3: they were going to say yes. And when they said no,
• 7:01
  Speaker 3: it was, he freaked out. I mean, there's no other
• 7:04
  Speaker 3: way to put it. He flipped out. He went on
• 7:07
  Speaker 3: the offensive. He made threats. He said he was going
• 7:09
  Speaker 3: to destroy the place. He was not going to let
• 7:12
  Speaker 3: any coaches coach in the playoff game. He was going
• 7:15
  Speaker 3: to take all their top players. I mean, he went
• 7:17
  Speaker 3: vindictive almost immediately. And so one of the great details
• 7:21
  Speaker 3: that kind of made me laugh is like, I talked
• 7:23
  Speaker 3: to people around the situation. It's like, Wayne was going
• 7:25
  Speaker 3: to go into this meeting. It's like, it's going to
• 7:27
  Speaker 3: be a 10 minute meeting. He was going to say, Hey,
• 7:29
  Speaker 3: I'm going to LSU and I'd like to coach in
• 7:32
  Speaker 3: the playoff. And if they said no, he was instructed
• 7:34
  Speaker 3: walk out of the room. And that's, that's the end. Well,
• 7:37
  Speaker 3: it ends up being like a two and a half
• 7:38
  Speaker 3: hour meeting because he gets told no. And he's like, no,
• 7:40
  Speaker 3: I'm going to fight. I'm going to get it. I'm
• 7:42
  Speaker 3: going to stay in here and I'm going to win
• 7:43
  Speaker 3: over this room. And it just goes off the rails.
• 7:46
  Speaker 3: And those feelings are still there. I mean, there's hurt
• 7:49
  Speaker 3: feelings on both sides. And What's kind of funny, and
• 7:52
  Speaker 3: I think what still confounds Ole Miss people is that
• 7:56
  Speaker 3: Lane is the one who broke up the relationship and
• 7:59
  Speaker 3: yet still seems to be the more aggrieved party. And
• 8:02
  Speaker 3: I think they're still not really understanding that. It's like,
• 8:05
  Speaker 3: you broke up with us. Why are you so mad
• 8:06
  Speaker 3: at us? But he'll just never get over, I think,
• 8:09
  Speaker 3: the injustice. dignity of not being allowed to coach in
• 8:14
  Speaker 3: that playoff. And I can tell you, like when he
• 8:17
  Speaker 3: was especially watching the Georgia Ole miss game, he was
• 8:20
  Speaker 3: blowing people up. Everybody associated with Ole Miss football, blowing
• 8:24
  Speaker 3: up their phones during the game, saying some pretty nasty
• 8:27
  Speaker 3: things about how mad he was.
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  Speaker 2: Oh my gosh.
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  Speaker 1: So that God, this is going to be juicy this week.
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  Speaker 4: John did the timing of the, the timing of the
• 8:35
  Speaker 4: book here. I was recently reading a, a a true
• 8:38
  Speaker 4: crime book. In the beginning of the book, the author
• 8:40
  Speaker 4: points out that Netflix did a documentary on his subject.
• 8:44
  Speaker 4: After he was working on the book, Netflix then does
• 8:47
  Speaker 4: a documentary. So his book comes out and it ends
• 8:50
  Speaker 4: up going to be a bestseller because there was so
• 8:53
  Speaker 4: much talk about that subject that his book blew up.
• 8:56
  Speaker 4: Your timing here, you have to be thinking, how fortunate
• 8:59
  Speaker 4: are you that you're doing this book? And then throughout
• 9:02
  Speaker 4: the entire summer, Wayne Kiffin continues to be one of
• 9:06
  Speaker 4: the biggest.
• 9:06
  Speaker 2: Stories in sports. So your timing here, it can't be better,
• 9:09
  Speaker 2: can it? He sold books for you.
• 9:12
  Speaker 3: Also, I don't know that he's happy about selling books
• 9:15
  Speaker 3: for me. I hope that he did. I hope some
• 9:18
  Speaker 3: of your listeners will go out today and pick up
• 9:21
  Speaker 3: a copy wherever they buy books, Amazon or whatever. I'll
• 9:24
  Speaker 3: tell you guys one thing. If you guys remember, there
• 9:28
  Speaker 3: was a Vanity Fair profile about Lane Kiffin that came out.
• 9:31
  Speaker 3: I think it was in May in which he brought
• 9:33
  Speaker 3: up some racial stuff. It did not go over well,
• 9:36
  Speaker 3: as you can imagine. Well, guess what? I happened to
• 9:38
  Speaker 3: be in Oxford that week. I was there when that
• 9:40
  Speaker 3: story hit. Oh, my gosh. sometimes you just have to
• 9:42
  Speaker 3: get lucky. Like I happen to be there. And some
• 9:45
  Speaker 3: of those people who are like, ah, you know, I
• 9:47
  Speaker 3: kind of like, I don't want to get into that
• 9:48
  Speaker 3: stuff again. I kind of want to let it be.
• 9:49
  Speaker 3: And they're like, Oh, I'll tell you the stories about
• 9:51
  Speaker 3: Lane Kiffin now. And so like, I ended up getting
• 9:54
  Speaker 3: a lot of great material because people were just so
• 9:56
  Speaker 3: fired up about that story. And the fact that it
• 9:58
  Speaker 3: felt like Lane Kiffin was, still kind of jabbing them.
• 10:01
  Speaker 2: There you go.
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: So again, he led to you getting information, information. He
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: helped your book, even though he wasn't trying to do so.
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: I have to ask you about one moment involving Lane
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: Kiffin that I have always wondered what's the real story there.
• 10:15
  Speaker 2: This goes on. And I know you write about the book.
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: This goes all the way back to when Al Davis
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: was firing him and he gets out a projector at
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: this very weird, all time weird NFL press conference. And
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: he's just telling you about Lane Kiffin being a liar
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: and he's insulting him. But you don't really know what
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: Lane Kiffin did.
• 10:33
  Speaker 2: You have details on that. What's the story there?
• 10:37
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I rewatched that press conference for this book, and
• 10:41
  Speaker 3: it is absolutely surreal. It is by far still the
• 10:45
  Speaker 3: wildest press conference I think I've ever watched. So, yeah,
• 10:47
  Speaker 3: I mean, there are a lot of things that were
• 10:49
  Speaker 3: happening there. He felt like he was leaking a lot
• 10:51
  Speaker 3: of information to people, trying to control the media, that
• 10:54
  Speaker 3: he was lying to him. I mean, really, from... day one,
• 10:58
  Speaker 3: there was friction there, which I, you know, detail in
• 11:00
  Speaker 3: the book, but the thing that I didn't know, and
• 11:03
  Speaker 3: I was trying to understand why was this so personal? Again,
• 11:06
  Speaker 3: it felt like an absolute personal attack on lane. And
• 11:09
  Speaker 3: what I was told by, you know, one of Al
• 11:11
  Speaker 3: Davis's right-hand man, you know, on the record at the
• 11:14
  Speaker 3: same attach to and all that was that Al Davis
• 11:17
  Speaker 3: was very aware of Lane Kiffin's off field behavior, which
• 11:21
  Speaker 3: included you know, chasing women at a time where he
• 11:25
  Speaker 3: was married with young kids. And as this person explained
• 11:28
  Speaker 3: to me, it was like, al davis i think was
• 11:29
  Speaker 3: married to his wife like 60 years or something like
• 11:31
  Speaker 3: that and it was like this was just absolutely disgusting
• 11:34
  Speaker 3: behavior to al davis like and that was just kind
• 11:36
  Speaker 3: of that final thing that's like this is just a
• 11:39
  Speaker 3: bad guy this guy lies about things he cheats um
• 11:42
  Speaker 3: he does all these things and so i always wanted
• 11:44
  Speaker 3: to know the answer to that and finally someone explained
• 11:47
  Speaker 3: it to me and it did kind of click into
• 11:50
  Speaker 3: place of like okay yeah i could see that why
• 11:52
  Speaker 3: that would be that final thing that if you already
• 11:55
  Speaker 3: really just think okay this guy just doesn't have morals
• 11:59
  Speaker 3: as a football coach or maybe as a person as
• 12:01
  Speaker 3: well and i'm gonna go scorched earth on him which
• 12:04
  Speaker 3: he did um and you guys your listeners can find
• 12:06
  Speaker 3: that full press conference on youtube i fully recommend it.
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: It's a wild time off the rails off the rails
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: that's amazing man i would have i would have thought
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: it was pure football that's crazy all right so There's
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: so many interesting things about Lane Kiffin, things we don't know,
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: things John found out about him personally that he shares
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: in the book. Lane being Lane, check it out. I assume, John,
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: it's simple where you get it, anywhere you buy books,
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: nothing specific we need.
• 12:33
  Speaker 2: To tell them.
• 12:35
  Speaker 3: Yeah, anywhere. I mean, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Books A Million.
• 12:38
  Speaker 3: Go into your local bookstore if you've got a favorite
• 12:40
  Speaker 3: one and ask them if they have it or if
• 12:42
  Speaker 3: they can get it in for you. It's available everywhere today.
• 12:45
  Speaker 3: So whatever is easiest for your listeners, go ahead and
• 12:48
  Speaker 3: do it. It's a wild ride. I think they'll enjoy it. Awesome.
• 12:50
  Speaker 2: It sounds awesome, man. Thanks, John. We appreciate you. Good
• 12:53
  Speaker 2: luck with the book, man.
• 12:55
  Speaker 3: Thanks so much. Appreciate it.