Former PSU Doctor: James Franklin Repeatedly Interfered with CFB Medical Decisions

Penn State head coach James Franklin is known for his fiery personality, but he may have overstepped his bounds.

Per John Luciew of PennLive, a former team doctor with Penn State's football team testified on Tuesday that there were "several occasions" when Franklin interfered with the medical decisions of team doctors and trainers.

Dr. Pete Seidenberg, who served as a primary care team physician during the early part of Franklin's tenure as head coach of the Nittany Lions that began in 2014, was speaking during the ongoing trial in a lawsuit filed by Dr. Scott Lynch, who served as Penn State's director of athletic medicine and orthopedic consultant to the football team before he was fired from both roles in March 2019.

Seidenberg detailed an instance when Franklin and then-Penn State athletic director Sandy Barbour wanted a player who attempted suicide to be medically disqualified from the team while he was receiving treatment in short-term psychiatric care.

The medical disqualification would've caused the player to lose his scholarship so Franklin could offer that spot to another player during the offseason. Seidenberg and Lynch declined to comply with Franklin and Barbour's request.

Seidenberg went on to detail "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," per Luciew. After explaining these instances, he repeatedly said of Franklin's actions, "I perceived that as his attempt to influence medical decisions."

Lynch alleged in the lawsuit that he was fired because he refused to "allow a coach to interfere with his medical treatment and return-to-play decisions." Lynch said he reported Franklin's actions to Penn State Athletics and Penn State Health, including his immediate supervisor David Black, whom Lynch is also being suing. Lynch is seeking compensatory and punitive damages.