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Could Paterno handle this situation any more poorly?
Joe Paterno, in the midst of treatments for lung cancer, made his first public statements since being fired after 46 seasons at Penn State, telling The Washington Post he did not know how to deal with the situation when he received a report that his former defensive coordinator was accused of abusing a boy in the shower at the Penn State football facility.
"I didn't know exactly how to handle it and I was afraid to do something that might jeopardize what the university procedure was," he told The Post in an extensive interview at his home in State College, Pa. "So I backed away and turned it over to some other people, people I thought would have a little more expertise than I did. It didn't work out that way."
The Post account describes Paterno, who is not accused of any wrongdoing, as physically weakened from his chemotherapy treatments, speaking with a rasp. The two-day interview was monitored by his attorney, Wick Sollers, and a communications adviser, Dan McGinn.
Paterno's cancer diagnosis was revealed Nov. 18, nine days after he was fired by Penn State in the wake of a sexual abuse scandal that has resulted in 52 counts of child molestation against former defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky. Paterno had announced his retirement early on Nov. 9, but the Penn State board of trustees fired him and school president Graham Spanier about 12 hours later.
Sandusky says he is innocent and is under house arrest after posting $250,000 bail. His next court appearance is a March 22 pretrial conference.
In addition, Penn State athletic director Tim Curley, who is on leave, and a school vice president, Gary Schultz, face trial for charges of perjury and failing to report suspected child abuse and have left the school.
Paterno said he wished he knew how allegations against Sandusky didn't come to light until this year. "I don't know the answer to that," he said. "It's hard."
Paterno gave The Post his account of how and when he was told of the abuse allegation against Sandusky -- a man with whom he had a professional, not personal, relationship.
Paterno said that until assistant coach Mike McQueary, in 2002, approached him, he had "no inkling" of a possible dark side to Sandusky, according to The Post.
"He (McQueary) told me what he saw, and I said, what? He said it, well, looked like inappropriate, or fondling, I'm not quite sure exactly how he put it. I said you did what you had to do. It's my job now to figure out what we want to do," Paterno told The Post.
"So I sat around. It was a Saturday. Waited till Sunday because I wanted to make sure I knew what I was doing. And then I called my superiors and I said, 'Hey, we got a problem, I think. Would you guys look into it?' Cause I didn't know, you know. We never had, until that point, 58 years I think, I had never had to deal with something like that. And I didn't feel adequate."
Paterno affirmed reports that McQueary was not specific in describing what he allegedly saw, and he told The Post that even if he did, "I don't know that it would have done any good, because I never heard of, of, rape and a man. So I just did what I thought was best. I talked to people that I thought would be, if there was a problem, that would be following up on it."
http://espn.go.com/college-football/...y-abuse-report
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Originally Posted by Fishhead
