At Penn State, football coaches called the shots on team doctors, supervisor says (2024)

The trial for a fired Penn State football doctor is shining a spotlight on the power wielded by head football coaches in Happy Valley.

Dr. Kevin Black, supervisor of the last two orthopedic surgeons to serve as the Nittany Lions’ football doctors, took the stand Thursday and chronicled the dismissal of one of his best friends who previously held the Penn State medical role.

But the dismissed doctor wasn’t Dr. Scott Lynch, who was removed as orthopedic consultant to the football team and medical director of Penn State Athletics in March 2019.

Rather, it had to do with the Feb. 2013 ouster of Lynch’s predecessor and his ultimate successor in the post, Dr. Wayne J. Sebastianelli.

Black, who supervised both Sebastianelli and Lynch at Penn State Health, described being summoned to a meeting in Hershey where then-Penn State athletic director Dr. David Joyner demanded that Sebastianelli be removed.

Black testified he disagreed with the move and advocated for Sebastianelli as the best doctor for the job – but to no avail. That’s because Joyner told Black that then-head coach Bill O’Brien wanted Sebastianelli gone.

“Wayne is out. I want you to do it. And if you can’t do it, we want Scott Lynch,” Black quoted Joyner as saying.

When Black asked for a reason, Joyner said: “Coach O’Brien wanted to make a change, and it was not a quality of care issue,” Black testified.

“He was very clear by his wording, even though he was attributing it to Coach O’Brien, this was a done deal. I had no input,” Black added of Joyner.

Within 24 hours of that meeting, Sebastianelli, who was later restored to the football team position in 2019, was escorted out of team facilities, his team credentials revoked, Black said.

When asked by Lynch’s lawyer, Steven Marino, why this happened, Black was at a loss.

“There was no rationale given,” he testified. “There was no reason given. It was such an inappropriate decision.”

Marino then suggested several reasons as he questioned Black:

“He was getting into the hot tub with players,” the lawyer said of Sebastianelli.

“That is a lie, what you said,” Black shot back.

“The cold tub,” Marino added.

“That is a lie,” the doctor repeated.

“He was leaking information to the press,” Marino continued.

“Nothing was said to me with regard to that,” Black said.

READ MORE: Did Franklin interfere? Fired football doctor didn’t describe it that way, supervisor says

Despite all this, Black said he continued to advocate for Sebastianelli. But at another meeting, Joyner made it clear he was prepared to hire a football doctor outside of Penn State Heath. Black quoted Joyner as saying that “if I want to hire someone from the University of Virginia, I could do that.”

It would be another six years before Black restored Sebastianelli, who he described has his friend, to the Penn State football post. But that move came at the expense of Lynch.

Black described his decision this way: “I removed him (Lynch) from the director of athletic medicine role and the football team physician role because I thought Dr. Sebastianelli was more qualified and in the State College community. In my opinion, he is more qualified than both of us for that role,” Black added, referring to himself and Lynch.

“Your friend, your resident, the guy you went to med school with,” Marino shot back, referring to Sebastianelli.

Black testified he was never comfortable with having Lynch in the Penn State role because it resumed the practice of having both Lynch and his student-athlete patients driving back and forth between State College and Hershey. By contrast, Sebastianelli was based near the campus.

Black described the move to appoint Lynch as being driven more by Joyner, even though Black said he did select Lynch for the Penn State role from among few options.

Lynch claims his ouster followed repeated clashes with head football coach James Franklin, who took over in 2014. Lynch claims he was terminated from his dual roles because he refused to “allow a coach to interfere with his medical treatment and return to play decisions.”

Lynch says he reported Franklin’s interference to Penn State Athletics and Penn State Health, including his immediate supervisor there, Dr. Kevin Black, who’s also being sued by Lynch. He is seeking both compensatory and punitive damages in the case.