The Penn State football program is still under a media microscope, it would appear. In preemptive response to a Sports Illustrated article about the football program’s medical care program that will reportedly be released Wednesday, Penn State has issued a statement.
The Philadelphia Inquirer reports the piece will be titled “Do Athletics Still Have Too Much Power at Penn State?” It was not available online Tuesday night, but, as one would imagine, it apparently doesn’t paint a particularly fond picture. Details of what’s in the article are scarce at this time.
Anyway, here’s the statement from PSU:
“To characterize the medical care Penn State provides our student-athletes as anything other than the highest quality is erroneous. Access to urgent and quality are for our athletes is no less than where it was at any point in the past 20 years.
“We provided Sports Illustrated with facts and data that demonstrate our commitment to our student athletes and how we compare to other peer institutions. Instead, the article sensationalizes in order to insinuate lower standards and largely ignores statements from the dean of the College of Medicine.”
Additionally, PSU athletic director Dave Joyner called some statements in the SI story “baseless accusations.”
Penn State recently made changes to its medical staff that included longtime team orthopedic surgeon and physician Dr. Wayne Sebastianelli stepping down from those positions.
“From a coverage standpoint, we have exactly the same level of medical care as we had previously,” Nittany Lions coach Bill O’Brien said in a statement to SI, which was obtained by the Centre Daily Times. “The same surgeons as last year are available to players who would need that level of attention. Nothing about our level or quality of athlete care has changed.”
Hard to tell what all this means right now, but it sounds as though we’ll find out soon enough.