Well, unfortunately for Penn State a pretty egregious accusation has been made against the university and head football coach James Franklin. Franklin is being accused of interfering with medical decisions of team doctors and trainers about players by former Penn State physician Dr. Pete Seidenberg. Seidenberg was the primary care team physician during the early years of Franklin’s tenure at Penn State.
The really unfortunate part of this accusation is it’s not empty. Seidenberg came out with a story when Franklin and, at the time, Penn State AD Sandy Barbour wanted a player on the team who tried to commit suicide to be medically disqualified from the team while he was receiving SHORT-TERM psychiatric care. If Franklin and Barbour were able to get their wish, said player would’ve lost their scholarship, which would’ve been an opening to offer another player. It’s sad because it sounds like this is just one example. Apparently, Seidenberg detailed “numerous meetings in which he said Franklin pressured him, Dr. Lynch, and the chief athletic trainer to alter their medical decision and the treatment advice and options given to players.”
This didn’t just come out randomly either. The accusations made by Dr. Seidenberg came out in an already on-going trial that was filed by Dr. Scott Lynch(mentioned above). Lynch served as Penn State’s Director of Athletic Medicine and Orthopedic Consultant to the football team. Lynch was fired in March 2019. Lynch alleges in the lawsuit he filed that he was fired in 2019 because he refused to “allow a coach to interfere with his medical treatment and return-to-play decisions.”
In our opinion, the NCAA punishments recently have felt kind of soft. We haven’t seen the NCAA hand down the Death Penalty since SMU in 1987. If this is all true and more cases/details come out, this would be Penn State’s 2nd MAJOR scandal in the last 15 years. Penn State got lucky they didn’t receive the Death Penalty for the Sandusky scandal. Penn State shouldn’t be let off the hook this time. Between the two, it feels like the Death Penalty should at least be considered.
From a purely football perspective, James Franklin has already been under fire recently(or so it feels like) for the football side of things. Franklin has been the Nittany Lions Head Coach since 2014, accumulating an 88-39 overall record and a Big Ten record of 56-32. All of Franklin’s accolades came in 2016: A Big Ten East Title, a Big Ten Title, Hayes-Schembechler Coach of the Year, Sporting News Coach of the Year, and the Woody Hayes Trophy. Franklin has only led Penn State to a double digit win season in 5/9 seasons(not counting 2020 COVID season, but that was his only losing season). Although being in the final CFP rank each of the last two years, it never really felt like they were a serious contender.
It feels like some Penn State fans are fed up with not being legit contenders for a Natty. This allegation is really serious, so this goes far, far beyond football itself, but it could be the out from the Franklin era that fans want. We will do another article once more details are available from the trial and/or a punishment is handed down, but it’s going to be an interesting next little bit for Penn State fans… this is really not good.