Reince Priebus got fired at the airport, so everyone made the same Lane Kiffin joke

White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus has been forced out amid executive branch internal strife. That part is important news, but sports fan, I’d like to draw your attention to this detail:

If you’re picking up what I’m putting down, the inside of your mind is starting to look like the following tweets:

Lane Kiffin, the FAU head coach and former Alabama offensive coordinator, was once fired as USC’s head coach while waiting at LAX. Athletic director Pat Haden called him off the team bus and then canned him right then and there, following a loss to Arizona State:

Kiffin was fired following that ASU loss in the early morning hours after touching down at a private airport near LAX. The episode was famously reported as Haden axing Kiffin right there on the tarmac near the team plane.

“I was a good 20 yards off the tarmac,” Kiffin said.

It was actually a private room near the team bus where Haden broke the news. Kiffin tried to talk his boss into being able to coach the rest of the season after a 3-2 start. Haden didn’t budge.

“I had no idea at all,” Kiffin said. “It totally caught me off guard. I got off the plane. I put my bag on the bus. I was going to sleep at the facility. Someone came and said, ‘Pat wants to see you.’ I left my briefcase on the bus.”

The next time he saw that briefcase, a staffer had delivered it to his house. Kiffin was driven home that night by a team security person.

Kiffin said the firing was the lowest point in his career -- “by far.”

Kiffin gloriously expressed his empathy for Priebus on Twitter, too.

Kiffin’s moved on — beating two of his former employers (Tennessee and USC), contributing to a title run with the Tide, and landing yet another head coaching job — but his lasting contribution to the greater discourse proves to have been that time he got jettisoned at the airport.

However, this means big things are in store for Mr. Priebus.