Attorneys for Ole Miss football players who are suing the school and head football coach Lane Kiffin communicated electronically to strengthen their case against dismissal of the lawsuit.
The messages, filed Friday in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Mississippi, stem from an exchange that followed DeSanto Rollins’ controversial first meeting with Kiffin on Feb. 27. This appears to be an indication of Mr. Rollins’ efforts. His mother complained to staff, citing concerns about her mental health.
Additional filings included text messages between Rollins and Ole Miss head football strength and conditioning coach Nick Savage.
“Hey Coach, I’ve decided it’s best to take a mental break from everything, meet with the doctors and get everything sorted before I start again,” Rollins texted Savage.
Savage replied: OK?
Is there anything I can do to help? ? ”
Messages left with Ole Miss and an attorney representing Kiffin were not immediately returned.
In another text exchange presented in court, Rollins’ mother sent a message to Pat Jernigan, Ole Miss’ sports medicine assistant AD and head football athletic trainer.
“We feel that our son DeSanto is experiencing a mental health crisis.” [sic]” Rollins’ mother wrote on February 27th. “Anxiety, depression, and crying symptoms. See him talking to a counselor, I’ll have him monitored too.”
Jernigan responded, “I’ll talk to him today.”
The document was released ahead of a March 21 meeting between Kiffin and Rollins, the audio of which was first released by FOS last month.
According to court documents previously filed in the case, Rollins’ recent filings indicate that Rollins avoided face-to-face contact with Kiffin for a period of time and cut off contact with Ole Miss athletics staff. I am rebelling against this perception.
“You have a great head coach,” Kiffin said during the meeting. “This is a job. Guess what? If I have mental issues and it’s not getting any better, but the head coach is told over and over again that he needs to meet with you. But I can’t afford not to meet my boss.”
The additional filing from Rollins’ attorney, Carol Edward Rose, came after Ole Miss and Kiffin disclosed communications earlier this week to strengthen their motion to dismiss.
One of the documents Ole Miss filed Tuesday included a text from Kiffin to Rollins on March 24.
“You just keep not answering my calls or texts at all, so you just take as long as you want or need to do what you want,” Kiffin wrote. “I fully support you in whatever you want to do. In my 25-year career, I’ve never had a single player who didn’t respond or communicate with me as a coach, and that’s okay. You. What you think is best.”
Rollins told Kiffin in a text message that included Rose’s contact information that she “could no longer respond directly to him.”
Rollins, who is still receiving a scholarship to Ole Miss, sued the school in September. The civil lawsuit, which seeks up to $40 million in damages, claims Kiffin “ignored” signs that he was suffering from depression following multiple injuries and the death of his grandmother.
An injunction has been issued in the case, and no further hearings have been scheduled.