Lane Kiffin has built his reputation as a confident, outspoken football coach that some fans like to hate, but in a new column for Athletes for God he describes how he has been humbled – and has found Christ.
Kiffin was head coach of the Oakland Raiders prior to a one-year stint at Tennessee and then a short career at Southern Cal (USC), which fired him after a loss at Arizona State.
“I was pulled off my team bus, in front of the players at the airport at 3 a.m. to be told I had been fired hours earlier,” Kiffin wrote. “I don’t wish that feeling upon anyone. I wanted to die, because at the time I was defined by my job.”
But God had other plans for him.
“Just when I needed Him, God answered in a big way,” Kiffin wrote. “I don’t know if God is a sports fan or not, but I do know this: He loves a good comeback.”
A few years earlier, Tennessee chaplain Roger Woods had given Kiffin a copy of Rick Warren’s book, The Purpose Driven Life. It had a big impact.
“On the first page were four words that changed my life,” Kiffin wrote. “’It’s not about you.’ “That’s all Rick Warren needed to say. It immediately sunk in, and I’ve been telling my players and coworkers that line ever since. I had never heard that before but that is the purpose of life.”
Kiffin believes he had “too much success, fame and money in…
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