Highlighted in todays NYT:
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/16/...ytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/16/...ytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare
Franklin scumbaggery
- Thread starter thebadby2
- Start date
Here is one quote from the article that sums up the feelings of slimeball franklion.
In 2022, Penn State football players themselves expressed concern around medical care, but their attempt to organize — including a request for a third-party representative on medical decisions — was opposed by the school and the Big Ten Conference and went nowhere.
In 2022, Penn State football players themselves expressed concern around medical care, but their attempt to organize — including a request for a third-party representative on medical decisions — was opposed by the school and the Big Ten Conference and went nowhere.
Franklin is a scumbag, but he wins. That’s the bottom line and the only thing that matters to them.
Franklin was leaning on the football trainers and doctor to clear players that weren’t physically ready to come back from injuries. Nike reps were involved in medical decisions etc.
I didn't get a paywall. Maybe you need to clear your cookies so the site resets your views to zero. This happens to me with the PG constantly. Then I clear my PG cookies, and I'm good for 2 more articles.
Anyway, here is the same article. https://archive.is/LVlBq
Archive.is is great. You put in the paywall article URL, it saves the page and let's you read it.
Nothing to see here. They were in the playoffs last season. They will keep things in perspective - The Penn State Way.
I think the concern with Nike was ankle tape covering their logo on the shoes. Franklin wanted medical reports for every player shoe-taped and why.
Simple solution is a Sharpie marker and draw a swoosh on the tape.
It is a little surprising to me that shoe companies just don't have branded tape.
It wasn't just a concern. It is part of their contract with Nike that the school can't practice spatting that can cover up any logos on the shoes. I think I remember a study saying spatting isn't beneficial and can increase the chance for knee injuries, but that's beside the point. It should be a call for the trainers/doctors.
Use and abuse anything or anyone to win. That school is a cesspool. This coming year may be the last chance for the bumbling idiot Franklin to win it all. If not, the team is likely to take a step back after losing the two backs and QB. Karma is alive and well thanks to Notre Dame and I'm expecting them to fail again this year in the CFP.
You don't need to read the nytimes for this, the PG had an in-depth investigation a few days ago. Hard hitting journalism. Oh wait a minute, I was wrong, it was a story on how stadium renovations would affect ticket sales & tailgating.
It's the only thing that matters to anybody. You think national guys like Stewart Mandel would speak out on it? He's too busy marking out on the joys of college football. Interesting that it was a Times reporter that wrote this, and none of the college football fan boys/girls at the Athletic, even though it is now part of the times.
Right--but Nike shouldn't have any say so whatsoever on what an athletic trainer does in the best interests of the athlete. And Franklin is individually getting a shit ton of money from Nike, so.... 1 + 1 = 2.
It's new in that it's now featured in the largest-circulated newspaper in the country.
Every trainer I know no longer will spat kids cleats because of the associated risks. When kids do it, they're usually getting a teammate or assistant coach to do it.
This report is a nothing piece until the appeal is heard. I'm willing to bet there won't be much paperwork to back up some of the claims and there won't be many witnesses.
This report is a nothing piece until the appeal is heard. I'm willing to bet there won't be much paperwork to back up some of the claims and there won't be many witnesses.
I was gonna say, I feel like I’ve heard about these allegations in this doctor’s lawsuit for years now. Pretty sure they had a whole big trial last summer in Harrisburg. Don’t remember the result.
i taped by cleats in high school mainly because it looked cool and it stopped your laces from becoming untied during a game. no real medical reasoning.. does anyone need a medical reason to tape their shoes? Or even ankles? i mean, it's ankle support, helps from twisting your ankles.
This is a ridiculous story. nothing more than nike wanting the swoosh more visible. i guess the swoosh on the jerseys arent enough..
its not really that difficult to put tape on your shoes by yourself. i remember doing it, i was younger then but dont recall it being a difficult task to perform..
Of course it's ridiculous. The team doctor isn't usually involved in taping, it's the trainers. I think the point of it was how Franklin interfered with the care of the athletes for reasons outside of their best interests.
The sponsor logo business is ridiculous too. IIHF does this in reverse. They have a list of approved equipment suppliers who pay to be on that list. If your stick or helmet or skates are from a supplier not on the list, the player has to cover up the logos.
The teams just put their own sponsor logos on the helmet that covers up all of the manufacturer logos so none get displayed.
Dumb.
But I do like it when the media dumps on Penn State.
they make it sound like the coach and the team doctor are putting the team's interest over the player's safety and it's huge. then you open up the link and learn that it's about nike reps upset that tape is covering their logo and it's about branding and has zero to do with player safety at all.
it's like when you see a story on facebook about some huge news break and you click on the link and it's a pic of some naked chick pushing a website lol.
The old theory was it was "another" level of support on top of taping the skin. Now we know it increases injury risk.
"Taping" your shoes and doing a true spat are 2 different things. Unless you have monkey arms, you probably aren't doing either your ankles or shoes from a therapeutic standpoint.
what is a true spat? Im seriously asking because that term im not familiar with?
if it's just taping a shoe including the heel, to give it support, it doesnt seem that hard and yes, i've seen it done by a football player. dont think you need a degree in medicine to do this.
Taping your ankles, i agree, a 3rd party is needed. maybe you mean when those guys use like 5 rolls of tape and tape their whole shoe up to their ankles and it looks like a cast. if that's what you are referring too then yeah, i guess you'd need some help.
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Ankle tape can be sticky situation in college football
Spatting puts universities in awkward position with shoe companies and football players
www.usatoday.com
I found this interesting for a number of reasons. Disclaimer: the article is from 2013.
Note the AD in the article is Sandy Barbour, now at Penn State.
These contracts specify that the shoe company can decline a player or trainer's decisions.
It mentions NIL before NIL as we know it was a thing.
But what this really made me think was that these shoe contracts are NIL for the athletes' feet and ankles. The athletes should be entitled to the money. The article mentions if an athlete must wear a competing brands shoe, the logo must be taped over. Why can't a player tape over Nike logo and put a Yeezy logo on the tape as an NIL deal? The players are not parties to the Nike contract. I hope someone tries it.
All In my ass… they’ll fall even earlier this season …
well in all fairness, these shoe and clothing companies are paying tens of mllions of dollars for these schools to wear their shoes and players are covering it up with tape. lol, as silly as it sounds, i kind of get it..Ankle tape can be sticky situation in college football
Spatting puts universities in awkward position with shoe companies and football playerswww.usatoday.com
I found this interesting for a number of reasons. Disclaimer: the article is from 2013.
Note the AD in the article is Sandy Barbour, now at Penn State.
These contracts specify that the shoe company can decline a player or trainer's decisions.
It mentions NIL before NIL as we know it was a thing.
But what this really made me think was that these shoe contracts are NIL for the athletes' feet and ankles. The athletes should be entitled to the money. The article mentions if an athlete must wear a competing brands shoe, the logo must be taped over. Why can't a player tape over Nike logo and put a Yeezy logo on the tape as an NIL deal? The players are not parties to the Nike contract. I hope someone tries it.
if you paid a team a lot of money to wear your shoes or socks with your logo on it and they covered up the logo, that kind of defeats the purpose..
very silly though and describing this situation as a HC disregarding players safety is a very misleading way to promote this story.
I feel like this is just an age old story though, shoe companies upset at players covering up their logos. you can go back to Jim McMahon in the mid 80's with wearing the wrong headband and michael jordan and nike not wanting him to wear another shoe brand logo in the olympics in 1992..
Except if you read past the first two-three paragraphs...
Like when it talks about PSU players making a formal request for a third-party medical professional to be involved in medical decisions in 2022 that was declined by the school and conference. You know, something that likely wouldn't happen if they felt they were getting good direction on medical issues.
Or when they talk about a LSU lawsuit over a player told he would lose his starting spot for complaining about headaches, then was later diagnosed with a brain tumor, which those doctors also disclosed to the school before even telling the player.
Or when it talks about nearly 20% of trainers polled said coaches played players that weren't medically cleared to play.
It's like when someone gives a book a review and pans it as terrible to bring attention to themselves, but you find out the reviewer is illiterate and only looked at the book's cover.
I'm wasting time having my morning coffee and did some "research" with Google. Apparently a study done at Bowling Green University showed that spatting (taping the ankle over the cleat) does nothing for treatment or prevention of ankle injuries. The athletic training reddit thread says may or may not increase knee injury and fractures. But their main concern is getting all the tape off if a serious leg or ankle injury does occur.
So Franklin and Nike are probably correct here.
But I'm going to spat my goalie skates tonight to try to extort money from Graf. But of course you can never tell the skate brand on a goalie from the pads, toe hooks and straps anyway. All that tape over the skate blades probably will affect my play too. Maybe a bad idea.
yeah but it looks cool. it's a fashion statement, nothing else.
The problem is the request was made as part of a push for unionization and the school and conference shot everything down.
then you open up the link and learn that it's about nike reps upset that tape is covering their logo and it's about branding and has zero to do with player safety at all.
Sometimes it helps if you actually read beyond the first paragraph of an article:
"The episode was just one instance that troubled Scott Lynch, the head team doctor, who had begun to feel that in the face of pressure from the coach and administrators, he was the only line of defense for the athletes. He complained to supervisors about the coach’s meddling with medical decisions. Ultimately, Dr. Lynch was removed from his position.
The trial offered a rare glimpse into how a high-profile college football team handled decisions around injuries — and revealed the pressure on trainers and doctors to greenlight students to get back on the field, despite reservations.
...the judge in the case, Andrew Dowling, wrote a recent opinion urging that the appeal by the defendants be denied because they had “prioritized their interest of protecting the Penn State Football team and Mr. Franklin rather than the health, safety and welfare of the football players.”
During the trial, the jury heard nearly a dozen stories, many corroborated, from Dr. Lynch about what he saw firsthand as the head orthopedic surgeon for the Penn State athletic department and football team doctor.
The jury heard that Mr. Franklin had pressured Dr. Lynch to allow the former star running back Saquon Barkley, who had missed the previous game with a sprained ankle, to return without passing recovery protocols; urged Dr. Lynch to withhold information from a player with a knee injury so that he might return quickly; and suggested hanging a sign in the trainer’s room that read “the lazy, overweight, unmotivated and injured football player look the same.”
When Mr. Franklin yelled at him, ignored him or hung up on him, Dr. Lynch held his ground — until he was removed from his job in 2019."
Our trainer describes a "spat" as one where you're essentially doubling up what you did to the ankle - tape wise. Like an ankle taping, there is a "technique" or "format" to how the tape is placed.
