The story of Lane Kiffin's car accident in August made the jump from sports blogs to the mainstream press yesterday, with the Associated Press, the LA Times and local station WVLT reporting that Kiffin damaged a loaner from Lexus of Knoxville but no report was filed with either Knox County Police or the City of Knoxville Police.
There are conflicting stories about whether the university conducted an investigation. The AP story reports UT spokeswoman Tiffany Carpenter as saying no internal investigation was conducted, while the LA Times story quotes UT Athletic Director Mike Hamilton as saying there was one.
It's enough to say this doesn't add up.
A car wreck took place after midnight and no report was filed and UT did not announce it when it took place. Kiffin says he fell asleep at the wheel, which isn't exactly legal but sounds much better than the alternative.
UT says it investigated the incident and found nothing to contradict that story, but 1) UT is not a law enforcement agency 2) the university had a vested interest in Kiffin, and 3) even if all that's true, why were no authorities notified? Without a police report, why did his insurance agree to pay for the damages? And why didn't UT release all this information to the public at the time?
Furthermore, consider these questions: Would we be hearing about this if Kiffin hadn't pulled one over on UT? Or would the university and fans have kept a lid on it because he was "our bastard"?
Mike Hamilton and UT have some questions to answer.
There are conflicting stories about whether the university conducted an investigation. The AP story reports UT spokeswoman Tiffany Carpenter as saying no internal investigation was conducted, while the LA Times story quotes UT Athletic Director Mike Hamilton as saying there was one.
"I had staff members verify that he was at the office until a certain time shortly before that and that he had fallen asleep," Hamilton said. "It was a late-night deal and I never was able to find out anything to the contrary."
It's enough to say this doesn't add up.
A car wreck took place after midnight and no report was filed and UT did not announce it when it took place. Kiffin says he fell asleep at the wheel, which isn't exactly legal but sounds much better than the alternative.
UT says it investigated the incident and found nothing to contradict that story, but 1) UT is not a law enforcement agency 2) the university had a vested interest in Kiffin, and 3) even if all that's true, why were no authorities notified? Without a police report, why did his insurance agree to pay for the damages? And why didn't UT release all this information to the public at the time?
Furthermore, consider these questions: Would we be hearing about this if Kiffin hadn't pulled one over on UT? Or would the university and fans have kept a lid on it because he was "our bastard"?
Mike Hamilton and UT have some questions to answer.
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