“How can you continue to defend this man?” That would sum up the refrain of Joe Paterno’s critics—or at least it’s a sanitized version of what makes its way around social media. It appeared again in the wake of claims that “documentation” existed that Paterno was made aware of Jerry Sandusky’s pedophilia at least as […]
The fireworks between the family of the late Joe Paterno, the Board of Trustees, the national media and the fallout from the crimes of Jerry Sandusky got some ammunition this morning with the release of the Paterno Family’s answer to the charges leveled against the former coach in the Freeh Report last year. It’s the first official response given by the family of the late head coach and serves to level the playing field in the battle for public opinion and history.
In light of the November arrest of former defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky for child abuse, his subsequent conviction and life prison sentence, Paterno’s firing and this month’s release of The Freeh Report, it’s become impermissible to harbor so much as a kind thought for the now-deceased Penn State coach. To say anything remotely kind about Joe Paterno and his legacy, it is said by the mainstream media, is to be virtually synonymous with a defense of child abuse. Harsh, to say the least, and after reading the Freeh Report, I don’t believe it’s accurate or fair.