A former Penn State staff physician alleges that coach James Franklin tried to intrude with medical selections involving gamers on the staff, in line with testimony obtained by John Luciew of PennLive.com. 

Dr. Pete Seidenberg, the first care physician for Penn State’s soccer staff in 2014, claimed throughout a civil trial towards Franklin and the varsity that he was pushed by Franklin and athletic director Sandy Barbour to medically disqualify a participant who tried suicide in an effort to release a scholarship. The unidentified participant was in short-term psychiatric care. 

“I perceived that as his try to affect medical selections,” Seidenberg mentioned. 

Seidenberg added that he declined to provide into the stress from Franklin and Barbour. He included different cases by which he thought Franklin overstepped in making an attempt to get his means on medical selections, involving each himself and former director of athletic medication Dr. Scott Lynch. The lawsuit was filed by Lynch, who alleges his unwillingness to associate with Franklin’s needs performed a key position in his termination in March 2019. 

Seidenberg now not works at Penn State and practices medication exterior of Pennsylvania. 

Lynch filed the lawsuit months after his dismissal and revised the grievance in 2021. Franklin himself was eliminated as a defendant in 2020 resulting from statute of limitations, so the lawsuit is directed at Penn State’s Milton S. Hershey Medical Heart and Dr. Kevin Black, who gave his dismissal. 

Franklin has been at Penn State since 2014 with an 88-39 total file. In 2023, he signed a 10-year assured contract that can pay him greater than $70 million.