Franklin denies doctor’s accusations
Penn State football coach James Franklin said Tuesday that he will continue to “vigorously defend our program” against claims made in a lawsuit by a former team doctor that Franklin pressured him to clear injured players.
Dr. Scott A. Lynch filed suit Monday in Dauphin County Court that he was removed from his job in February because he complained about Franklin to athletic director Sandy Barbour, associate athletic director Charmelle Green and others.
Franklin began his first weekly press conference of the 2019 season by addressing Lynch’s lawsuit.
“I think you guys know that yesterday Penn State Health issued a statement rejecting Dr. Lynch’s claims,” Franklin said. “We’ll continue to vigorously defend our program and all its participants in this matter. As always, the health and well-being of our student-athletes is the utmost importance to us. But after that, we’ll have no further comment.”
Lynch, formerly the university’s director of athletic medicine and the football team’s orthopedic physician, is seeking more than $50,000 in damages. The defendants are Penn State; Franklin; Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center, where Lynch still works as a professor in Penn State’s College of Medicine and as the director of orthopedic sports medicine; Barbour; Green; and Kevin P. Black, chair for orthopedics and rehabilitation for Penn State.
The 43-page lawsuit does not list specific examples of Franklin trying to influence Lynch regarding a player’s medical care.
Several former players came to Franklin’s defense on Twitter.
Austyn Carta-Samuels posted a photo of him and Franklin embracing. “I was James Franklin’s QB in 2013 (at Vanderbilt) & tore my ACL in Game No. 7,” Carta-Samuels tweeted. “Iwanted to play on it. 3 wks 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.”
Former Penn State linebacker Jason Cabinda, now with the Oakland Raiders, said: “This is complete and total BS straight up.”