Penn State Head Coach James Franklin Arrives at High School Football Game in a Helicopter Like Normal People Do

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Because the best way to recruit high school football players is to roll up like a villain in an Arnold Schwarzenegger movie, Penn State head coach James Franklin headed down to Woodlawn High School in Baltimore, MD via helicopter. His chopper landed very subtly on what seems to be the baseball fields, you know, so no one would know he was there. So the next time someone points out that college athletics aren’t a business, or that athletes shouldn’t get paid, just picture PSU’s football coach rolling up to a high school in a helicopter like he’s goddamned Mark Cuban. And for a program like Penn State, nothing says “keeping things in perspective” like building helicopter rentals into the football budget.

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31 Responses

  1. Chris Christie did it first. In fact, considering how much money Penn State gets from the state each year, he’s even doing it on taxpayer dime the way Chris Christie did.

    1. All expenses from the Athletic department are self sustained by 4 sports programs.

      Every expense.

      The Football team, mens basketball team, mens ice hockey team and womens volleyball help support every athletic program. Mens wrestling may also be in there now, not sure.

      But not on the taxpayer dollar.

      1. That’s a nice political way to put it, but be real, money is money and if there wasn’t state money coming to the school at all then whatever that pays for would have to come from somewhere else. Similarly, if the sports programs weren’t self-sufficient, the shortfall would be made up elsewhere.

        It’s like when the archdiocese says tuition money isn’t used to pay for rape priest trials. Coffers are coffers.

        1. Penn State Students receive less state appropriated funds than any other public school in the country. PA is the absolute worst thanks to Corbett .

          No, this money is not from tax payers.

          The new addition to the HUB, paid for by students.

          The new 111 million ice rink, donated money by Pegula family

          You have absolutely no idea what you are talking about.

          To your ‘point’: “if the sports programs weren’t self-sufficient, the shortfall would be made up elsewhere.”

          it is falling short in some aspects, there needs to be a new indoor pool built for the swim team. It is so old that they can’t even host Big 10 meets there because it doesn’t have enough lanes. They(athletic department) has to fund themselves. Renting a helicopter out of SC airport for a quick flight, itsn’t nearly as expensive as so many people are making it out to be.

      2. And really, even going by your argument, flying a helicopter as a recruiting tool is a huge waste of resources.

  2. He could’ve borrowed my Chevy Chevette.

    Sure it’s an old rust bucket but it gets me from point A to point B.

  3. As if Franklin is the ONLY college coach to ever use a helicopter to get around during recruiting. A 20 second Google search allowed me to find at least 2 others (Rutgers and ASU) who did the same thing this year and an article from SB Nation from 2009 about how its the “latest trend” in college recruiting. So, before crucifying Franklin for doing this why not do a minimal amount of research to find out that its not all that uncommon and he is far from the first one to do this. Jim, I’d say you’re better than that but we all know you aren’t.

    1. Yes, they’ve been doing this for a while. Why is this a story Jim? Because it’s Penn State?

    2. *wooossshhh* Thats the sound of the point going right over your heads. Heads that are too preoccupied with a game to the point that you blindly defend a program, school, and culture that enabled child rape. Doesnt matter if you were directly involved in a cover up like the top brass–If you were bellyaching over a statue of joe pa or if you were a part of those ridiculous street “celebrations” when the NCAA lifted the ban, you were and are inadvertantly part of the problem.

      1. Crash! That’s your point crashing to the ground in flames. This story has nothing to with pedo. Are you asserting that because Sandusky raped kids that PSU can’t try to recruit players and (re)build their program in the way that every other D-1 school does? That the chopper-thingy that every school does is “over the top” just in PSU’s case? That’s asinine.

      2. I was going to counter your post but then i realized you used zero facts to support it. Just keep hating you fucking loser. How about you let those guys go to trial before you casually claim they covered up? How bout the kid in the shower saying he was never abused and thats why he never took the stand? How about those charges being the only ones dropped against sandusky? How about the procedures laid out by the NCAA this year follow the exact protocol that paterno did? Got any answers to these questions you fuckin retard? Nah just keep on hating u pathetic dweeb.

  4. I’m live and well in State Penn. How many girls will get forced to bang said recruit on his official visit. Rape everyone.

  5. I never really liked Penn State to begin with, so these types of posts didn’t used bothered me in the least.

    This is ridiculous though. So many people hate them that it actually has made me like them and respect the fans a small amount (as if I ever thought that were possible).

  6. You loss a multi-daily viewer with this incredibly lazy and unnecessarily bias piece of “journalism” today. I’m not even a PSU fan but I understand what happened there and believe they served their punishment above and beyond what was asked of them. Let’s move forward as a society and learn from this and quit being so damn pathetically petty for fuck’s sake. That’ll be all children.

  7. Am sitting here watching another dud Thursday night NFL game with grown man drabbed in pink. Goodell has to go.

  8. Greg Schiano used to do the same thing at Rutgers, he did it twice for a recruit at our local high school, except their helicopter was painted all up in Rutgers red complete with logos, so I imagine the current coach still uses it as well.

  9. I guess being a PSU hater was another job requirement for jim to get the job along with leaving the traffic slut alone and fellating richie and carts any chance you get.

  10. I’m not an English major, but shouldn’t building be billing. Maybe it’s my Penn State degree in accounting or the fact that I managed to get a degree prior to trying build a strong reputation through my work, but it seems obvious that this writer isn’t good at his work. This article seems poorly written and lazy, next time get some numbers or something. Don’t just write crap and think people would want to read this. Seriously it is just sad.

Comments are closed.