Penn State football coach James Franklin 'stole' dumbbells to avoid gym amid pandemic

Desperate times call for desperate measures. Well, at least Penn State football coach James Franklin thinks so.

The COVID-19 outbreak has caused Franklin to seek alternative ways to work out, including walking outside and playing with his young daughters. While those things include a bit of cardio, Franklin needed some weights to continue building muscle. So, he took matters into his own hands.

"We won't go in the weight room with other people in there," Franklin said, according to USA Today's Frank Bodani on Wednesday during a video conference with reporters. "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.

"Then he left a nasty note in there. 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 grabbed the weights because his daughter Addie has sickle cell anemia and he needs to be careful when it comes to germs. The growing coronavirus concerns have postponed all professional and college sports for the foreseeable future, but Franklin stays in contact with his players via video chat and phone calls.