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Lane Kiffin opens up on sobriety, personal growth at Ole Miss
By Sydney Hunte
Published:
Lane Kiffin has been open about his sobriety and the changes he’s seen in his life during his journey.
The Ole Miss head coach, who has been sober since 2020, said on The Pivot podcast that he had come to a realization that he was “not the best version of myself,” mentioning that an unhealthy diet, along with drinking alcohol, led to weight gain.
“I just felt like, ‘This isn’t the full me,'” Lane Kiffin said. “I really didn’t start this ‘I’m never gonna drink’ thing. I was like, ‘I’m going on a cleanse diet’, and it was like, no red meat, no bread, no alcohol.”
Eventually, Kiffin realized how “amazing” he felt after the changes he made, ultimately coming to grips with the fact that he needed to be a better father to his children.
“I was great at work, but then I wasn’t fully present when I finally go home, because (I told myself) ‘man, I go home and I gotta have a couple drinks, man,'” he said.
It’s not just about abstaining from alcohol, Kiffin noted.
“To me, it’s getting sober not just physically, but having emotional sobriety,” he said. “It’s one thing to just not drink. It’s another thing to get yourself really figured out and really calm and really having emotional sobriety. I can deal with these things. I can let them go. I can figure out how to deal with them.”
Sydney is an Atlanta-based journalist who has covered everything from SEC and ACC football to MLS, the U.S. men's national soccer team and professional tennis. His work has appeared on such platforms as SB Nation, Cox Media Group and FanSided.
