The Power Struggle Over a College Athlete’s Medical Well-Being

In the early part of the 2014 football season, a Nike representative visited the Penn State athletic trainer’s office and confronted the football team’s two doctors and head trainer.

The representative listed several players, including the star quarterback, whose socks and shoes had been taped to stabilize previous injuries. The tape covered the Nike logo, and the representative demanded that this practice stop, according to court testimony.https://svtoday.org/

Soon after, Coach James Franklin started to intervene, requiring the trainer to provide a list of players who needed ankle taping over their shoes, along with explanations. This was just one of the many incidents that troubled Scott Lynch, the head team doctor. He began to feel that, under pressure from both the coach and administrators, he was the sole protector of the athletes’ well-being. Lynch expressed concerns to his superiors about the coach’s interference with medical decisions, ultimately leading to his dismissal. He then filed a lawsuit.

In 2022, a Pennsylvania jury awarded Dr. Lynch $5.25 million in damages for wrongful termination. The trial offered a rare insight into how a high-profile college football program made injury-related decisions, shedding light on the intense pressure placed on trainers and doctors to clear athletes to return to play, despite concerns.

“College sports are broken, and I think they’re beyond repair,” Dr. Lynch stated in an interview. “There’s far too much money influencing decision-making. No one is looking out for the athletes.”

If an antitrust lawsuit settlement is approved later this year, college sports will resemble professional leagues even more closely, with schools required to compensate athletes. However, unlike college athletes, professional players have union representation and more control over their medical decisions.

Dr. Lynch’s lawsuit highlighted incidents between 2015 and 2019, but there are still signs of ongoing concerns both at Penn State and in other institutions.

In 2022, Penn State football players voiced their own worries regarding medical care. Their attempt to organize and request a third-party representative for medical decisions was met with resistance from the university and the Big Ten Conference, and the initiative went nowhere.

In October, a Louisiana State player filed a lawsuit against the school, claiming a coach threatened to remove him from his starting position after he reported headaches. Weeks later, he was diagnosed with a brain tumor. The family of a Bucknell player who died during a workout last summer also claims that the university has been less than transparent about the incident.

In response, LSU stated that its healthcare provider offers exceptional medical care for its athletes, though they declined to provide further comment. Bucknell, meanwhile, pledged to share more information once its investigation progresses.

“College athletics is the Wild West when it comes to medical services,” said Moira Novak, who was ousted as the University of Minnesota’s athletic medicine director in 2018 after reporting unethical and potentially illegal behavior. “Some programs do a decent job, but if I had a child who was a college athlete, I’d make sure they advocate for themselves.”

Penn State responded to the jury’s verdict, expressing “extreme disappointment” and asserting that athletes only participate with the independent approval of the medical team. The university insisted that Coach Franklin did not influence medical decisions, claiming that he had worked to ensure the well-being of student-athletes during his tenure.

Defense attorneys argued that Franklin’s inquiries into medical decisions were part of standard practice and aimed at gathering information.

Coach Franklin, who has seven seasons remaining on his 10-year, $85 million contract, declined an interview request. He is not a defendant in the lawsuit, as Penn State and Franklin were dismissed from the case due to a missed filing deadline, a ruling that Dr. Lynch is challenging. Penn State’s medical center and his former supervisor, Dr. Kevin Black, are also appealing the verdict.

The judge, Andrew Dowling, recently expressed that the appeal should be denied, citing the defendants’ prioritization of the football team’s interests over the health and safety of the players.

Throughout the trial, the jury heard numerous accounts from Dr. Lynch, the head orthopedic surgeon for the Penn State athletic department, who described how Coach Franklin had pressured him to clear star players, including Saquon Barkley, to return to the field before meeting recovery protocols, and had even suggested hiding injury details from athletes to hasten their return.

Dr. Lynch stood firm in these situations, despite being yelled at, ignored, or having calls hung up on him, until his eventual dismissal in 2019.

Rob Windsor, a former defensive lineman at Penn State, testified that during his senior year, a new head trainer refused to meet with Dr. Lynch about his knee injury despite his repeated requests. “You had a doctor and a trainer standing up for the athletes, and they got rid of them both,” Windsor said, noting the difficulty many felt in speaking out against Penn State, given their loyalty to the institution.

The NCAA, founded in 1906 after a series of deaths in college football, was intended to ensure the safety of athletes. But over a century later, with college sports turning into a billion-dollar business, the NCAA has attempted to curb coaching and administrative interference in medical decisions. In 2017, the NCAA revised its policy to grant team doctors and trainers “unchallengeable autonomous authority” over medical decisions, including preventing coaches and administrators from influencing hiring and firing decisions.

However, Brant Berkstresser of the National Athletic Trainers’ Association (NATA) pointed out that the real issue lies in the lack of enforcement and reporting mechanisms. “A standard without consequence isn’t really a standard,” he said.

The NCAA has never penalized a school for interfering with medical autonomy, according to their infractions database.

Ms. Novak, who worked at the University of Minnesota for nearly two decades, recalled a toxic culture that hindered her efforts to protect athletes. She once sent a memorandum to the Board of Regents, detailing unethical practices, including a coach urging an athlete with post-concussion symptoms to conceal them. The athlete only received medical attention after collapsing on the field.

The University of Minnesota stated that decisions regarding return-to-play protocols are made by the medical staff and athletes, with no involvement from coaches or administrators.

Novak considered suing but ultimately reached a settlement. She described her dismissal as a message to remaining staff: “Put up or shut up, or leave.”

Dr. Lynch’s case took five years to reach trial and survived multiple attempts to dismiss it. The university’s internal investigation, led by Robert Boland, was not allowed in the trial because Penn State claimed attorney-client privilege. The report’s findings were never made public.

The jury deliberated for just over two hours before returning a verdict in Dr. Lynch’s favor on his 63rd birthday. He hopes the case will spark reform to protect athletes’ health.

Steven Marino, Dr. Lynch’s lawyer, was more pessimistic, saying, “It was a devastating finding of fact, but I don’t think it’s enough to cause change. This will just be seen as the cost of doing business.”