Penn State football coach James Franklin responds to lawsuit: 'We’ll continue to vigorously defend our program’
In brief remarks as part of his regularly scheduled media conference, Franklin added: "As always the health and well-being of our student athletes is of utmost importance to us."
Penn State football coach James Franklin responded briefly Tuesday to a lawsuit filed against him and the university, saying that “we’ll continue to vigorously defend our program” against allegations from former team orthopedic physician Scott A. Lynch.
Lynch’s lawsuit accused Franklin of improperly interfering with the doctor’s management of treatment for student athletes, and for trying to influence his decision-making on injured athletes while pressuring him to return them to the field.
Franklin opened his first media teleconference of the season at Beaver Stadium by referencing a statement issued Monday by Penn State Health that rejected Lynch’s claims.
“We’ll continue to vigorously defend our program and all the participants in this manner,” Franklin said. “As always, the health and well-being of our student athletes is of the utmost importance to us. But after that, we’ll have no further comment, so I just wanted to make sure we covered that.”
Lynch said his removal last March was carried out because of his complaints over Franklin’s alleged actions, and that he was being punished for reporting those actions to the actions to the appropriate authorities, a violation of the Pennsylvania Whistleblower Law. He said he was released in an effort by the university to avoid scandal.
Franklin received support Tuesday on Twitter from two of his former players.
Linebacker Jason Cabinda, now with the Oakland Raiders, tweeted: “Lemme go ahead and save y’all the time of speculating … this is complete and total BS straight up.”
Cabinda’s mother, Natalie, also tweeted in support of Franklin: “I don’t think any coach cares about his players like coach Franklin. He treats them like his sons.”
Austyn Carta-Samuels, who played quarterback for Franklin at Vanderbilt, said the coach helped him after he was injured.
“I was James Franklin’s QB in 2013 & tore my ACL in Game 7,” he tweeted. “I wanted to play on it. Three weeks later I was cleared by the doctors to play at Florida. Franklin thought I was rushing it & chose to protect me & told me I’d start vs Kentucky the next week. Be better.”
Jen Simmons, the mother of redshirt junior defensive end Shane Simmons, who missed five games last season with an undisclosed injury, said of the lawsuit, “This is ABSURD!!!
“Absolute and total BS!!!” she tweeted. “As a parent of a son with an injury, @coachjfranklin and the entire staff have been nothing but supportive of our players and have their best interest at heart. None of this is true.”