Former Penn State doctor testifies that James Franklin meddled in team’s medical decisions
The team's former director of athletic medicine claims in a lawsuit that he was fired because he refused to “allow a coach to interfere with his medical treatment and return-to-play decisions."
A second team doctor with Penn State’s football team testified Tuesday about several occasions when coach James Franklin attempted to interfere with the medical decisions of team doctors and trainers.
This interference included a player who attempted to kill himself by throwing himself out a window, according to Dr. Pete Seidenberg, who served as a primary care team physician during Franklin’s early years as head coach. Seidenberg is no longer with Penn State and practices out of state.
“Thankfully someone stopped him,” Seidenberg said of the player who was not named in open court in Dauphin County.
The suicidal player was still receiving treatment in short-term psychiatric care when Seidenberg testified that Franklin and then-Penn State athletic director Sandy Barbour wanted the player medically disqualified from the team.
Seidenberg testified this would have meant the player would lose his Penn State scholarship so Franklin could offer it to another player during the upcoming offseason.
Seidenberg testified that he and Dr. Scott Lynch, then Penn State’s director of athletic medicine and orthopedic consultant to the football team, declined to follow Franklin’s and Barbour’s request. Seidenberg said it would have been the equivalent of disqualifying a player with a torn ACL before he received surgery.
The incident was one of several detailed Tuesday by Seidenberg as part of the ongoing trial in a lawsuit filed by Lynch, who was fired from his dual roles with the Nittany Lions on March 1, 2019.
The suit alleges that Lynch had repeated clashes with Franklin, who took over in 2014. Lynch claims he was fired because he refused to “allow a coach to interfere with his medical treatment and return-to-play decisions.”
Lynch says he reported Franklin’s interference to Penn State Athletics and Penn State Health, including his immediate supervisor there, Kevin Black, who is also being sued by Lynch. He is seeking compensatory and punitive damages in the case.
The defense said there is no evidence that Lynch ever altered his medical treatment of players under pressure from Franklin — or anyone else.
On the witness stand, Seidenberg detailed numerous meetings in which he said Franklin pressured him, Lynch, and the chief athletic trainer to alter their medical decisions and the treatment advice and options given to players.
Repeatedly, after detailing these incidents, Seidenberg described Franklin’s actions this way: “I perceived that as his attempt to influence medical decisions.”
Dauphin County Court Judge Andrew Dowling barred the doctor from repeating any of Franklin’s words on the witness stand. Instead, Seidenberg had to testify to what he observed and the conclusions he drew from Franklin’s actions.
Franklin and Penn State Athletics were dropped from Lynch’s lawsuit because of a filing deadline technicality.
One of the medical staff’s meetings with Franklin and other team and athletic department officials occurred on a Friday night at the Penn Stater Hotel before a game. Seidenberg testified that Franklin wanted a significant starter to be cleared to play.
“Coach was trying to get us to release the athlete for return to play,” the doctor testified. “We were being pressured to release the athlete. There was a discussion. Coach was trying to influence medical decisions.”
In the end, Seidenberg testified that he and Lynch resisted and the player was not cleared for the game.
Asked how Franklin reacted to this medical decision, Seidenberg testified: “He was angry. He was angry at our decision.”
In another instance when the team medical staff stood firm against Franklin over a player’s treatment, Seidenberg testified of the coach: “He got up from the conference table abruptly and went back behind his desk. The meeting was over.”
Lynch’s attorney, Steven F. Marino, quipped that Franklin’s actions amounted to a “principal’s office moment.”
Seidenberg testified that he and Lynch would explain the various treatment options to injured players, leaving it to the players whether to opt for surgery or a more conservative approach involving therapy that could take longer if the treatment did not work.
In two such cases described from the witness stand, Seidenberg said Franklin favored surgery as the first option, calling meetings in both cases with Seidenberg and Lynch. The doctors abided by the players’ choices for the more “conservative” medical approaches.
Seidenberg testified that Franklin often questioned the number of players on the injury list for practice. Players limited by injury were clad in “baby blue” jerseys for those workouts.
“There was pressure to get people out of the baby blues and pressure to do it quickly,” Seidenberg testified.
To show that Lynch did not always go against Franklin, Seidenberg chronicled an incident in which a player broke a bone in his foot during the 2019 Citrus Bowl. Lynch explained the injury to the player, telling him that going back in the game would not further damage the foot. Lynch left it to the player, who opted to go back into the game.
Afterward, Franklin lauded the player to the entire team.
“Coach was very happy,” Seidenberg recalled. “The athlete was applauded for continuing to play hurt.”
“What was the message?” Marino asked his witness.
“Play hurt.”
“And that came from Coach Franklin?”
“Correct,” Seidenberg said.
Just in case players didn’t get the message, Franklin floated an idea to borrow a locker room sign from the rival Michigan program. The sign, introduced in court, read: “The unmotivated player, the out-of-shape player, the hurt player, and the bad player all look the same.”
Shocked by the message, Seidenberg testified that he sent an email to Lynch and the head trainer saying, “I am concerned that he felt the need to share this with us.”
Added Seidenberg on the stand: “This encourages hurt players to hide their injuries and not report them to the medical team.”