Skip to content

Penn State's Franklin 'stole' 25-pound weights from condo gym to avoid tenants

Jamie Sabau / Getty Images Sport / Getty

Like many others, Penn State head coach James Franklin is trying to stay in shape while stuck at home amid the coronavirus pandemic. Finding time to use his condominium's gym hasn't been easy, though.

As Franklin explained Wednesday during a video conference call, he decided to take a pair of dumbbells from the gym because his youngest daughter, Addie, has sickle cell anemia and is therefore at greater risk of developing serious symptoms from the virus.

"We won't go in the weight room with other people in there," Franklin said, according to Frank Bodani of the York Daily Record. "And so I took the 25-pound (dumbbells) and brought them up to our condo because I couldn't get in there, a guy was dominating the weight room."

The man apparently wasn't too happy about Franklin taking the dumbbells.

"Then he left a nasty note in there," Franklin explained. "He said, 'Whoever stole the 25-pound weights, could you bring them back?' So then I wrote a little note that said, 'Well, could you stop dominating the weight room for three hours a day?'"

Franklin, who's entering his seventh year at Penn State, has also been helping his players stay in shape by sending them at-home workout ideas.

"We're still competing with all the other top programs in the country, and the best programs and the best individuals are going to handle this adversity the best. And I would like to try to even flip it in some ways and say, 'If it's handled the right way, we have an opportunity to learn from this, to grow from this,'" he said.

Daily Newsletter

Get the latest trending sports news daily in your inbox