Penn State head coach James Franklin has been accused by a former team doctor of interfering with medical decisions of team doctors and trainers.
According to John Luciew of the Philadelphia Inquirer, Franklin allegedly wanted a player who attempted suicide to be medically disqualified from the team while he was receiving treatment in short-term psychiatric care.
Here is an excerpt:
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.
