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Penn State Contract Requires James Franklin to Get a Job, and I’ve Got a Few in Mind
By Kyle Pagan
Published:
So some brilliant lawyer at Penn State threw it in James Franklin’s contract that if he was fired he’d need to find a job in media or coaching and then Penn State would pay the difference of his $8 million a year salary.
That’s according to Amanda Christovich at FrontOfficeSports.com:
Franklin and Penn State could have negotiated a settlement after his firing, but the terms of his 2021 contract extension, obtained by Front Office Sports, read: “Should Coach obtain such applicable employment prior to the date this Contract would otherwise have expired, the University’s obligation to make payments to Coach … will be offset by the total compensation earned by Coach from such applicable new position through the end of the otherwise unexpired term of this agreement.”
In other words, whatever new salary he receives from his next job will offset what Penn State owes him in a buyout. And Franklin is obligated to search for a new job, according to the deal. That language, known as “duty to mitigate,” states: “Once terminated, Coach is obligated to diligently search for and make a good faith effort to obtain another position appropriate for his skill set (i.e., coaching, scouting and broadcasting only) and to provide the university upon request with evidence that he is seeking such employment.” Franklin is also required “to make good faith efforts to obtain the maximum reasonable salary” at his new job.
How strict is Penn State going to be? James Franklin spent a decade tricking them into thinking he’s a good coach, so it won’t be hard to trick them into thinking he’s actually looking for employment. I was once making a ‘good faith effort’ to find a job when I was on Government cheese back in 2016. Apply to a couple gigs on Indeed, go to an interview here or there, check in on my parole officer at the unemployment office and those checks would continue to roll in. So who knows what Franklin’s going to do? But if he was to get a job, what should it be? I’ve got a couple ideas:
Sports anchor at WPSU
“Lets throw it over to James in sports!” Imagine that. Franklin is working some $40,000/year entry-level job at the local news covering what? Penn State athletics. He’s now in charge of scrutinizing the guy who took over his job, while PSU still has to pay him $7.96 million a year. Just hanging around the locker room like a ghoul haunting the stadium. How can you beat that? That’s cathartic. This guy spent the last 10 years being picked apart and now he gets to be on the other side of the coin. I also just want to see James Franklin have to cover field hockey.
Head Coach at USF
Now this one actually makes sense. Once Alex Golesh leaves they’re going to need a replacement and Franklin needs a school to rebuild his image. What’s a better place than a spot everyone from the Northeast goes to get out of the cold? You have the hotbed Florida recruiting scene and did we mention he’s still getting paid by Penn State? It’s a win-win. Have Coach take a $1 million salary, Penn State pays the rest, and put all the money you would’ve made in an NIL fund so Franklin can fly his little helicopter up and down the panhandle while recruiting. It’s not Virginia Tech, it’s not UCLA, the SEC or some lower-tier B1G program. It’s the American, baby! Plus Southern Florida = hot wives.
The Trades
James Franklin would kill it in the union because he would never have to develop anything just like he didn’t at Penn State. Drew Allar and the passing game have gotten worse since he enrolled. Why not go into a job where personal and skill development don’t matter? You go to school, learn your skill, and then it’s 40 years in the trades collecting a paycheck until that pension hits. No career advancement required. No one asking you to go out there and win the big job. You crack a couple jokes on the site, hang some sheet rock, take a lunch, and call it a day. So what he cracked a frame? He’s the king of the “1-0 mentality.” It’s all about going 1-0 the next day:
Look how locked in he was after losing as a double-digit favorite:
MASONRY! MASONRY! MASONRY!
Bouncer at Champs Bar
There’s nothing that James Franklin loves more than losing against Ohio State and yelling at students:
Might as well get paid to do it again in a stress-free environment. Denying fake IDs, kicking people out he doesn’t like. All of it. Time to get some revenge on the people who were in the student section chanting, “Fire Franklin!” this weekend. Oh you want to get in? Not on the new bouncer James’ watch. Better take that shit to whatever replaced The Rathskellar. God this guy has never met a teenager he didn’t love screaming at:
Good luck on the job hunt, BGJ!
Kyle writes blog posts and does Man on the Street-style videos all around Philadelphia. He graduated from Temple University (a basketball school) in 2015. contact: k.pagan@sportradar.com