It was only a matter of time and assembling a game plan...
So now, officially, taking issue with the Freeh Report the Paternos, trustees, and former players are taking on the NCAA in court. The university itself is not a party in the suit since they agreed to the sanctions set forth by the NCAA which included a four-year bowl ban, wiping 111 wins off the books from Joe Paterno's record, a $60-million fine, and a serious amount of scholarship cuts.
Here's the excerpt from the show involving Bob Costas and Paterno family attorney, Wick Sollers...
The NCAA hasn't received any information involving the Paterno interest and was not in a position to comment on the lawsuit itself. And neither is Penn State: "Despite our request, the Paterno family has not shared any information about its planned legal action," chief legal officer Donald Remy said in a statement. "We remain committed to working with Penn State toward the continued successful completion of our voluntary agreement with the university and to working" with the NCAA's independent monitor, former U.S. Sen. George Mitchell.
The issue the HQ has with the Paternos and all involved in the lawsuit- the university signed off on the whole thing.
Give it up, pack it in, and otherwise stop...
The decisions made by those in power reflected an inherent desire to hide the facts and hide the hideous acts of a warped individual who is, thankfully, serving the remainder of his days in jail.
You don't see the Sandusky family chasing this rainbow...
All this reflects is the amount of hubris and ego that the Paternos have in a vain attempt at revisionist history...
So it begins. Well over a year after it started, Joe Paterno's widow is telling the family's side of the Jerry Sandusky saga and they'll tell it on Monday.
Multiple outlets report that on Sunday morning, Sue Paterno will release a report she says will counter all the allegations the Freeh Report made against her husband.
And it will be released to the public on ESPN's "Outside the Lines" show.
No, really.
The report, rumored to be some 180 pages long and supposedly compiled by a "National Team of Experts", is reportedly a comprehensive rebuttal to the allegations that investigator Louis Freeh made in his report to the Penn State Board of Trustees.
Read the full story from the Centre Daily Times RIGHT HERE
You'll recall the Freeh report alleged Joe Paterno was part of a large cover-up by Penn State leaders to hide the behavior of convicted child molester Jerry Sandusky. The report provided documents stating Joe Paterno was aware there were issues with Sandusky and chose to try handling them internally rather than telling police.
Mind you, Paterno was not charged with anything. Sue Paterno believes her husband's name was besmirched and the humilation of her husband was too much to bear.
The story says the report will prove that Freeh did not "Thoroughly" investigate what happened and ignored details that would exonerate JoePa. She did not elaborate as to why Freeh would do that.
Oh, Sue Paterno will apparently state her case to the world Monday in an interview to be broadcast on the "Katie" show (syndicated, check local listings for time).
The family is filing their own appeal with the NCAA...
The HQ has no idea what they think they're going to attempt to accomplish over something that the university that employed their father has already signed off on. The appeal is on the grounds that Joe Paterno is an “involved individual” mentioned in the consent decree and the Freeh Report.
The family is asking for 30 days to write material to back up their assertion.
From the letter itself:
As will become evident in a thorough and impartial review, the NCAA acted hastily and without any regard for due process. Furthermore, the NCAA and Penn State’s Board Chair and President entirely ignored the fact that the Freeh Report, on which these extraordinary penalties are based, is deeply flawed because it is incomplete, rife with unsupported opinions and unquestionably one-sided. The NCAA and Penn State’s leadership, by accepting and adopting the conclusions of the Freeh report, have maligned all of the above without soliciting contrary opinions or challenging a single finding of the Freeh report. Given the extraordinary penalty handed out, prudence and justice require that scrupulous adherence to due process be observed and not completely ignored.
If you are so inclined, the entire letter from Scribd.com RIGHT HERE
Once again, the university signed off on the report- without challenge...
Or did the Paterno family forget that whole thing about a "four-year death penalty...?"
Duke and Team USA head coach Mike Krzyzewski discusses the Freeh report and his thoughts on Joe Paterno.
It’s quite obvious that Coach K has been buried in preparations for the London Olympics and hasn’t fully consumed the Freeh report.
Krzyzewski never blamed Paterno in public comments feeling after all he has accomplished Paterno deserved better.Even Coach K realizes this report will forever stain Paterno’s legacy.
This is a topic that is already being hotly debated on Twitter, Message Boards, Sport Talk Radio and on TV. And it's not a simple one; "What's next in the Penn State investigation?"
And there is an extremely wide divergence of opinion.
Exactly as we and oh so many others have been saying since the conviction of former Penn St. assistant Jerry Sandusky, this was...and is going to get worse before it gets better.
As summarized earlier today in the report by former FBI Director Louis Freeh, there were multiple problems with (a) the way Penn State administrators reacted when confronted with this and (b) the way the Penn State Board of Trustees didn't react in regards to the way administrators handled this.
But the question is this: What's next?
1--The NCAA is going to investigate the school. And they should. But the cries for the "Death Penalty" and "Eliminating the Program" won't happen. On several levels you could make the argument it should, but it won't. The Freeh report information painted the Football program and former Head Coach Joe Paterno in a horrible light. Paterno was portrayed as a sort of "Godfather" type figure that nobody had the temerity to cross. And it portrayed the football team as being the "End All, Be All" of the school. It is not.
But the NCAA is somewhat boxed in here. There is no precedent for this in any of their voluminous set of rules. Yes, arguably, this could be construed as "Lack of Institutional Control", but in the technical sense, they didn't violate an NCAA rule. Did they violate the spirit of doing the right thing? Hell yes! At it's core, this is primarily a criminal case and the NCAA is not set up to punish based on that.
Yes, I know they've stuck their collective noses in some places they shouldn't before. But...
Do I think they should get the "Death Penalty?" Yeah, you could make the argument. But it would send a lot of things down a slippery slope, one that you have to be very careful before heading down. It would open up a whole new set of definitions about what is an "NCAA Violation".
2--Will there be charges or lawsuits filed? Hell to the yeah. This opens up pretty much everyone in a role of responsibility to legal charges.
In the case of the administrators, former AD Tim Curley and former VP of Student Affairs Gary Schultz are already being charged with perjuring themselves. This is not going to help that case.
Thus far, former president Graham Spanier has avoided that fate. That will change. He is implicated on several levels here, none of them good. The quote about being humane and the fact he never once asked about the children, that will and should damn him forever.
What we think happened to Paterno is he treated this the way things like molestation and devient behavior were dealt with back in the 40's and 50's. They were swept into a broom closet and they hoped those issues would go away. And that in no way, shape or form justifies Paterno's stubborn ignorance or willingness to do the worst possible thing.
The family of now deceased coach Joe Paterno needs to be very careful here. They keep harkening to what Paterno did for the program and all the good things he did, which were many. But they have NOTHING to do with this.
Did Paterno admit he should have done more? Yes. But he also lied to a grand jury and again, has been portrayed as the "Godfather", a mafioso style boss of the Happy Valley/Penn State area.
Again, Paterno, nor his family have EVER expressed their sympathies with the victims. And that is the problem here.
3---So what happens next? Curley and Schultz will go on trial. And Spanier, we and many others hope, will be next.
The NCAA will investigate and make a statement that says how appalled and repelled they are by what happened in this case and the way the Football team "Bullied" everyone in town. And they will put the team on Probation. But they won't kill the team.
Penn State will be sued and they will be sued a lot. And they should be. The Paterno family will be sued as well. And they should be.
Lest we forget, Joe Paterno's statue will be taken down. It has to be. For everything he did leading up to this, when presented the chance to do the right thing, he didn't. And sorry, that can't be forgiven.
It's an odd coincidence that during Jerry Sandusky's trial, his attorney strongly tried to push the case that the "Victims" were conspiring to make money off of the school and others.
They weren't. But they are about to.
This is one of the most horrible episodes in the history of modern human behavior. There is nothing that anyone can say to justify the way Penn State, it's adminstrators, it's board of trustees and Joe Paterno handled this. Nothing.
There are no excuses.
All we can hope for at this point is this opens some eyes and makes people more aware of behaviors such as Sandusky's. It also, we hope, makes ALL PEOPLE realize that we have a responsibility to protect those who can't protect themselves. That should ALWAYS...in EVERY SITUATION be first and foremost. It's just sad and pathetic that it took something like this to reinforce it.
UPDATE: The press conference involving members of the Board of Trustees and the current president of the University was somewhat heated...
Here's some of the exchanges among the media and those who got put in the line of fire...
((HT: MSNBC))
In a subsequent interview with Tom Rinaldi on ESPN, Jay Paterno refuted points of the Freeh Report claiming that no one in or around the program thought Jerry Sandusky was a child predator in 2001. Jay Paterno also says his father wishes he knew more so he could have done more.
In regard to the 1998 incident, Jay Paterno claims that the depth of his father's knowledge is in dispute and the incident was turned over to law enforcement. In defense of the allegations of 2001, his father reported to the people he was supposed to report to and accepts the criticism that he should have done more.
"None of us knew," he said "and we were not the only ones who missed it."
It's one of the more anticipated documents released in some time.
At least to those who cover Sports or are interested in the fallout from the Jerry Sandusky case.
Former FBI Director Louis Freeh was charged by the Penn State Board of Trustees to investigate what...well...pretty much everyone involved with Jerry Sandusky, either directly or indirectly knew or didn't know when it came to Sandusky's molestation of young boys.
Here is a summary of what the report says: (it's pretty damning)
--Per a Pre-Report Press Release, Freeh's investigators conducted over 430 interviews and read over 3 million e-mails.
--The school violated The Cleary Act, a Federal Law that requires them to at least investigate reports such as the one's that accused Sandusky.
--Despite the Paterno families complaints, they did cooperate with the investigation, providing many documents and notes.
--The reports Paterno talked administrators into changing plans after the McQueary discovery were true.
--The reports Paterno, former President Graham Spanier, former AD Tim Curley and former VP Gary Schultz purposely didn't report what they knew about Sandusky were true. And they were done to spare the school the negative publicity they believed would go with such reports.
--The 4 DID know about the allegations Sandusky assaulted a boy in 1998 despite their statements otherwise.
((From the report: After being informed of the investigation into Sandusky in 1998 "Schultz is immediately informed of the investigation and notifies Spanier and Curley. Schultz's confidential notes from May 4, 1998 'Behavior at best inappropriate@worst sexual improprieties' and at min-poor judgement. Schultz also notes: Is this the opening of Pandora's box and 'Other children?'".))
((More from report: "Curley notifies Spanier and Curley that he has touched base with Paterno about the incident. Days later, Curley e-mails Schultz 'Anything new in this department? Coach is anxious to know where this stands". Paterno testified to the Grand Jury before his passing saying he knew "Nothing" about any 1998 investigation))
((Still more from report--after the McQueary witness incident: The administrators came up with a plan to start telling people about Sandusky. But--"Curley emails Schultz and Spanier and says he (Curley) has changed his mind about the plan after giving it more thought and talking to Joe (Paterno) yesterday." Curley suggests informing Sandusky they know and offer to help him. If he refuses then they inform 2nd mile and others and to not allow Sandusky access to school faciilities.
((Spanier signs off on it and adds: "This report is acceptable to me The only downside is if the message is not heard and acted upon and then WE become vunerable for not having reported it. But that can be assessed down the road. the approach you outline is humane and a reasonable way to proceed."))
((Going back in time, there is this note by the investigators: "Before 1998, several staff members and football coaches regularly observed Sandusky showering with young boys in the then Lasch building. None of the individuals interviewed by the Special Counsel notified their superiors of this behavior."))
--The Board of Trustees were not made aware of anything regarding Sandusky and the Board is heavily criticized for not "Creating an atmosphere that allowed the School to 'Not be Accountable' to them."
--After the Sarah Ganim reports in March came out, the Board did not demand accountability from Spanier or anyone else at the School.
We're not going to decipher the minutae in all the details of the report. If you would like to read all 267 pages of it, which we recommend, you can do so by going to the Freeh Report Website.
Pretty much everyone involved here who could have put a stop to the Monster Sandusky..didn't. This is a colossal failure of responsibility.
Those defending Joe Paterno, Penn State or anyone else being held responsible is wrong. Paterno, whether he realized it or not...broke a Federal Law. He knew. He may not of known details. But he knew. And he didn't do anything. For fear of hurting the School and/or the Football team
And that folks is INEXCUSABLE.
But it is not all on him (Paterno). From Spanier to Schulz to Curley should be jailed. They should be crucified. Because they did wrong. They operated on their own. But it is not all on them. No system was in place to hold them accountable.
We hope, no, we pray the U.S Attorney's office prosecutes these men to the FULLEST extent of the law. They should be. Yeah, we know Paterno passed away, but this should and we hope WILL tarnish his legacy.
When faced with the opportunity to do the right thing he failed. When given the chance to do the right thing Spanier failed. And so did Schultz and Curley.
Yes, the report lays out the discussions they had about reporting this, but NONE OF THEM FOLLOWED THROUGH. They deferred to Paterno and then tried to cover it all up. They put the interests of themselves and Penn State ahead of the children..and felt NO REMORSE over it.
Yes, you can expect Penn State, it's Board of Trustees, the Paterno family and others to be sued civilly, they are exposed to huge liabilities for their sheer and utter ignorance and stupidity for not acting.
Please read the report, it makes us and a whole lot of other people pretty angry. Penn State and it's Board of Trustees have a lot to ponder...and do. Unfortunately they can't go back in fix their COLOSSAL FAILURE to act, but let's hope they do the right thing now and act like an institute of higher learning that is their for the betterment of all rather than the protection of a few.
Here's the Freeh presser in its entirety
((HT: WHP-TV Harrisburg))
