James Franklin Doesn’t Care About Your Idea of “Cool”
The only fashion Franklin cares about is winning.
James Geoffrey Franklin is a bald, 45-year-old father of two from Langhorne, Pennsylvania, and he doesn’t care about your idea of "cool."
In fact, he only cares about two things: playing the game he loves and playing it in the right spirit, and his players are not about to act any differently.
Franklin happens to be the head coach of the Pennsylvania State Nittany Lions, one of the best football teams in the nation. A team in a sport in which athletes spend more time trying to look cool on the field than playing the game.
On Sunday, Franklin’s Penn State team lost to a walk-off field goal to the Michigan State Spartans. His players immediately headed for the visitor’s locker room. Franklin sprinted after the funeral procession, headed by quarterback Trace McSorley and linebacker Koa Farmer, furiously shouting at them to get back onto the field and shake their opponent’s hands.
From pillar to post, from the highest boardrooms all the way to the practice squads, the NFL is all about image, branding and cool. Sportsmanship — well, let’s just say that is a difficult aspiration to retweet.
After all, if you are not celebrating every play you make, self-contributing to your own ego, are you really a football player? Do you really have what it takes to play in the NFL?
We are not saying McSorley and Farmer are poor sports. After all, they have not had very good role models to look up to in their own sport, and across other leagues, where marching to the lockers to mend bruised egos after a close loss is par.
Fortunately for the young men of the Nittany Lions, they have Franklin to teach them how to play the game, both before and after the whistle is blown. Men like him should be prioritized in college sports.
The NCAA’s mission statement says, “Our purpose is to govern competition in a fair, safe, equitable and sportsmanlike manner, and to integrate intercollegiate athletics into higher education so the educational experience is paramount.” Nowhere does it mention the student-athletes are at all times required to uphold and represent a fashionable attitude, and reactions to outcomes on the field, aligning with what is seen in professional sports.
The theater and brazenness can wait ‘til one reaches the professional ranks. One of the long-held enjoyments of college athletics is its pure and, for the most part, unspoiled nature.
The spirit of college sports is alive in Franklin, and it is his job to lead and develop some of the best, young football players in the nation as athletic talents and men.
Part of being a man is upholding a level of class, which amounts to a healthy level of celebration of a victory, and an equally as healthy acceptance of loss.
After the match, Franklin explained his actions to Yahoo Sports.
“I saw a few of our players running off the field, not going to shake hands. We’re going to win with class and we are going to lose with class, and we are going to shake people’s hands and give them credit because they deserved it.”
Thank you, Mr. Franklin. Maybe if there were more coaches like you in college sports, we would not be producing the same level of questionable personalities in the professional ranks.
About the Creator
Myles Stedman
Journalist at Rugby.com.au | NEAFL media team
Contributor at Zero Tackle, RealSport, The Unbalanced, FanSided, Last Word on Hockey and SB Nation.
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