Penn State football in spotlight for the wrong reasons again

Former Penn State football team doctor Scott Lynch is suing Penn State University. The Nittany Lions are in the spotlight, in a bad way, again.

Dr. Scott A. Lynch has filed lawsuits against Penn State University, and Penn State head coach James Franklin. Lynch claimed that Franklin “pressured” him into rushing athletes back onto the football field before they were entirely healed.

Lynch also claimed that Franklin, “Tried to influence his decisions regarding whether hurt players were fit to play.”

Lynch was recently removed as the orthopedic surgeon for the Penn State football program, as well as the director of athletic medicine for the university. He filed several complaints regarding Franklin to higher ups in the university, and he believes that’s the reasoning for his recent dismissal.

James Franklin isn’t the only defendant in this lawsuit.

Penn State Athletic Director Sandy Barbour, Senior Associate Athletic Director Charmelle Green, Chairman of orthopedics and rehabilitations Dr. Kevin P. Black, and the Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center are all also being targeted.

Lynch claims that his termination is unlawful due to the Pennsylvania Whistleblower Law. He claims his dismissal also breaks the rules of the NCAA and the Big Ten conference. Penn State University Health responded to Lynch’s claims in a statement regarding the allegations, “The best interests of the student-athletes in mind, given the increasing complexity and growing demands of sports medicine, as well as health care in general.”

Penn State should know more than any other school that covering up any form of rule breaking is intolerable and unethical. This isn’t the behavior the NCAA had in mind when they nearly gave the Penn State football program severe sanctions several years ago in the wake of the Jerry Sandusky scandal. The NCAA gave Penn State the penalty in order to “restore the tradition of academics first, football second.”

Whether Dr. Lynch’s claims prove to be true will only come with time. But for now, Penn State is in the wrong side of the spotlight — again.