SI Special Report – Do Athletics Still Have too Much Power at Penn State?

Changes in the University’s Medical Care Contradict Promises to Operate Transparently

At a time when safety in football has never been more scrutinized, changes in Penn State University’s once-exemplary medical care, just 18 months after the biggest scandal in college sports history, contradicts recent promises by the school to reign in the athletic department and operate transparently, according to a special report in this week’s SPORTS ILLUSTRATED by senior writer David Epstein.

Wayne Sebastianelli, the beloved longtime Penn State director of athletic medicine and orthopedic surgeon-head physician for the football team since 1992, was relieved of his duties this past January as part of an abrupt shift in the school’s health-care program for football. Even more troubling are the circumstances surrounding the change. SI finds that the policy shift can be attributed to the controversial January 2013 appointment of athletic director David Joyner, a former member of the Penn State board of trustees who had no experience in athletic administration and had a contentious history with Sebastianelli. Just four days after Joyner officially assumed the full title of AD, Sebastianelli was ordered to clear out his office.

“Here we are trying to change our image and approach administrative changes with clarity and openness,” says Mac Evarts, former dean of Penn State’s College of Medicine and a current professor of orthopedics at the university, “and now we have another example of a decision being driving by athletics.” (PAGE 44)

Sebastianelli kept his title of director of athletic medicine, but his work with the football team, which included attending nearly every practice and game, was over. He was replaced by a new head physician, Peter Seidenberg, and Scott Lynch, an orthopedic consultant for football, who will now attend home games and at least one practice a week. Penn State released a statement at the time saying that the “change in physicians was made after a review of procedures and personnel by Coach Bill O’Brien and is part of an on-going re-organization of the football staff.” (PAGE 46)

O’Brien told SI that Joyner approved and implemented the changes that he recommended. However, trustee sources say that Joyner’s rationale for the change was cost savings. “It’s less good care,” says Vincent Pellegrini, the former chair of the department of orthopedics at Penn State “in exchange for saving a few bucks.” (PAGE 47)

The report finds that Joyner, an orthopedic surgeon and former All-America offensive lineman and wrestler at Penn State in the 1970s, actually campaigned for Sebastianelli’s job when it was created in 1992. Joyner previously served as the head physician to U.S. teams at the ’92 Winter Olympics and was the founder of Joyner Sports Medicine Institute (JSI), which developed 19 physical therapy centers in a number of states. The search committee chose Sebastianelli, a move that did not sit well with Joyner, according to Pellegrini. Over the next decade, Pellegrini said, “Penn State had a model program for sports medicine.” (PAGE 45)

According to current and former Penn State staff members, administrators, former players and longtime colleagues and friends of both Joyner and Sebastianelli, the decision started a rivalry between the two doctors. “Joyner kept working behind the scenes to become the sports medicine doctor at Penn State,” Evarts says. “And I have to tell you, now he’s taken advantage of what had been a long-standing, very competitive relationship with Sebastianelli.” Through a University spokesman, Joyner said, “It’s terribly unfortunate some want to make baseless accusations….The vast majority of Penn Staters want the focus to be on our dedicated student-athletes, as it should be.” (PAGE 45)

The special report also notes that O’Brien hired Penn State alum Tim Bream, who worked with Joyner at the ’92 Olympics, as athletic trainer in February 2012. Sources involved in health care for Penn State athletics who spoke with SI on the condition of anonymity say they saw Bream, who does not have a medical degree, engage in practices normally reserved for doctors, such as giving players anti-inflammatory drugs without a prescription and lancing a boil on a player’s neck. University medical sources also said that Bream told physicians to stop talking with the parents of players and that doctors should not spend as much time with the team.

Epstein spoke to former Penn State walk-on wide receiver Garrett Lerner. Lerner says Bream treated him in February with an electrical-stimulation machine that left two severe burns on his right leg. Epstein writes, “The greater problem in Lerner’s case, he says, was that later in the week, when his leg became painful, no physician was in the athletic training room to examine him, and the athletic trainers decided simply to keep the burns covered.” (PAGE 48) While Lerner insists that training staff took good care of him, his leg had become infected as he was not seen by a doctor for several days.

Even before the removal of Sebastianelli, Joyner’s appointment to AD was questioned. “You have to ask yourself how a member of the board of trustees was hired as AD without a national search,” says Brandon Short, a football captain in 1998 and ’99 (PAGE 45). Epstein refers to a November 2012 special report issued by the Pennsylvania auditor general that cites Joyner’s transition from trustee to AD as an example that conveys “a public message that influential insiders are running the university, and that objectivity and independent thinking are compromised.” (PAGE 46)

About the writer:

Senior Writer David Epstein writes about sports science and medicine, Olympic sports, and is an investigative reporter for SI. His science writing has won a number of awards, including the Society of Professional Journalists 2010 Deadline Club Award for an article on the genetics of sports performance. Since 2008, Epstein has co-written several of SI and SI.com’s most important investigative pieces, including the revelation that Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez tested positive for steroids in 2003, and a report that revealed a pattern of NCAA violations under former Ohio State football coach Jim Tressel.