James Franklin broke the sad news during his press conference Tuesday that RB Journey Brown will not be able to play football again.
That doesn’t just mean this season for Penn State, Franklin later confirmed.
Brown has a health issue that will prevent him from playing football ever again.
Franklin was broken up talking about the news and said Brown would be putting out a statement.
Here is the statement Brown posted on Twitter.
I didn’t even expect to make it this far but it’s about Journey, not the destination. #HLM #SIAM pic.twitter.com/nbQrIsjXzY
— SUNNY-D☀️🦕 (@JourneyBrown6) November 11, 2020
“Through internal testing and second opinions Journey Brown Brown will no longer be able to play football,” Franklin said. “It was discovered through a routine COVID-19 test, although it is not COVID related.”
“We learned about this in early September, and we’ve been working through this and and dealing with this as a team. Journey is one of the most popular and respected players on our team, and we found out about this in early September.
“The entire organization is rallied behind Journey and his family. We need Nittany Nation to do the same, as I know we will. Journey’s handled this unbelievably well. I know he’ll be extremely successful whatever he decides to do.”
Franklin later said, “Journey Brown is like a son to me.”
Brown posted that he has hypertrophic cardimyopathy. That is the same heart condition that college basketball star Hank Gathers suffered from, and he died on the court in a basketball game for Loyola-Marymount in 1990.
“It’s heartbreaking,” PSU coach James Franklin said. “And when it happened, when we found out about it, you’re in shock. You feel physically sick about it. And you’re just in shock.”
Franklin said Brown has handled the situation very well.
Brown had a tremendous finish to last season, rushing for a Penn State-bowl record 202 yards against Memphis in the Cotton Bowl.
He was considered one of the best running backs in the nation entering this season, but he never got the chance to play.
“That’s what made this news so hard on everybody because we knew what type of player he could be for Penn State, but also you know for his future,” Franklin said.
Brown was a track star in high school and was a legend even before he came to Penn State. In 2015, playing for Meadville High School, he carried 30 times for a national single-game record 722 yards and 10 touchdowns to lead his team to a 107-90 win over DuBois.
