Free Republic

HARRISBURG, Pa. -- A lawsuit against the NCAA by the family of late Penn State football coach Joe Paterno and others is fatally flawed and should be thrown out, the organization said in a court filing Thursday. The filing in Centre County court said the suit contains "sundry misdirected complaints" and argued that the plaintiffs don't have standing to challenge the consent agreement between the NCAA and Penn State over the child molestation scandal involving ex-assistant coach Jerry Sandusky. "Plaintiffs resort to tortured interpretations of the NCAA bylaws and the case law in an effort to obscure two inescapable facts:...

Another key figure in the Jerry Sandusky child sex abuse case weighed in Tuesday with his take on whether former Penn State head football coach Joe Paterno was an active participant in efforts to cover up Sandusky's sex crimes. In an interview recorded for CBS 60 Minutes Sports, former Chief Deputy Attorney General Frank Fina said flatly: "I did not find that evidence." That was after Fina stated that he did come to believe, as the state's probe of Sandusky progressed, that former Penn State president Graham Spanier and several of his top aides had tried to interfere with the...

After 14 months of focusing on Joe Paterno and PSU's alleged failures, when Ziegler attempts to finally defend Paterno, the media shifts their focus to the real culprit of the scandal -- Jerry Sandusky. Also, not testifying at trial is the new standard of guilt in America. If you had any false hopes that the media would be willing to give Joe Paterno and PSU a fair hearing about the Sandusky Scandal, yesterday should have crushed those hopes. John Ziegler appeared on The Today Show and on CNN's Piers Morgan. He also did several radio and phone interviews, of which...

<p>Some vocal alumni had called on university leadership to release itemized costs, in part to promote transparency....</p> <p>Those critics had also asked the university to release the letter of agreement, or "engagement letter" with Freeh, that outlined the scope and responsibilities of the former FBI director in leading the internal investigation into the scandal....</p>

STATE COLLEGE — Penn State trustee Paul Suhey admits relieving Joe Paterno of his head coaching duties in November 2011 over a late-night phone call was not the right tact. Stephanie Deviney, another trustee, is certain the whole board feels that way. “We apologize, we screwed it up as far as how we delivered the message,” Suhey said Friday in an interview. “Our decision, we’re not going to go back on. But we messed that up big time. “People are still so hurt by that, and you know, damn it, we screwed it up.” The Paterno decision will go down...

This excerpt from the Clemente Report is very disturbing. For anyone who refuses to believe that Joe didn't know - I think this story will change their minds. Would anyone blame this Mom, like they blame Joe? Would she be fired? Would she be cast as a horrible, evil person? Should all of her life's good work be erased because of this episode? Was she demonized like Joe has been? And this molestation happened literally right in front of her eyes. Please watch the video, read the Clemente report, THEN please post your comments and let us know what you...

A report commissioned by Joe Paterno's family calls the July 2012 Freeh report that was accepted by Penn State trustees before unprecedented sanctions were levied by the NCAA against the school's football program a "total failure" that is "full of fallacies, unsupported personal opinions, false allegations and biased assertions." The Paterno family report, which targets nearly every conclusion and assertion the Freeh report made about Paterno in the wake of the Jerry Sandusky child sex abuse scandal, states that while former FBI director Louis J. Freeh has had an honorable past and good reputation, his investigation -- especially as it...

Joe Paterno's widow is to give her first interview since the Jerry Sandusky scandal and her husband's subsequent death, appearing on Katie Couric's daytime talk show in an episode scheduled to air Monday. Sue Paterno, who was married to the legendary Penn State football coach for 50 years, is scheduled to talk with Couric in studio for the nationally syndicated show "Katie." The two have already gotten together at Paterno's home in State College, Pa. Joe Paterno was head coach of the Nittany Lions for almost as long as he was married, from 1966 into 2011. He led the team...

Much has been written, and will be written, about the tremendous job Coach Bill O'Brien did in guiding Penn State's football team, the university and all of Nittany Nation this season and it will all be well deserved. Similarly, Michael Mauti, Michael Zordich, Matt McGloin and others will be lauded as the embodiment of leadership and excellence and, like the accolades given to O'Brien, it will be well deserved. However, there is another person to whom we owe a bit of gratitude for the great season that was 2012 and that is the late Joe Paterno. When recruiting young...

Video link to an interview w/ Costas and Franco Harris. They also did another interview at the same link on the Immaculate Reception. Franco tells it like it is. Costas has softened on Joe because he actually read the freeh report. Good interview and good representation from Franco (who is not known for his public speaking).

Stints in jail. Hefty fines and restitution. Clouded futures. The consequences of their bad behavior have been steep for the Penn State students who took to the streets and rioted in the chaotic aftermath of Hall of Fame coach Joe Paterno's firing last November. Perhaps none have learned a harder lesson than Justin Strine, a young man from central Pennsylvania whose planned career as an Army officer is over before it began — the casualty of his own split-second decision to put his hands on a news van, and a judicial system that considered him as guilty as classmates who...

Joe Paterno had to be prodded by his family to read the grand jury report regarding Jerry Sandusky and did not understand some of its graphic terminology, according to a new book. The book, Paterno by Joe Posnanski, was purchased Friday by the Associated Press in advance of its release next week. In the book, Posnanski describes a scene at Paterno's home, two days after Sandusky had been charged with child sex abuse last November. Paterno's family and a close adviser were trying to explain to the Penn State coach that there was a growing sentiment Paterno must have known...

A Penn State board of trustee member filed an appeal Monday afternoon with the NCAA over sanctions levied against the university after the Jerry Sandusky child sex-abuse scandal. Three other trustees joined the appeal, which states that the consent decree university president Rodney Erickson signed with the NCAA agreeing to the sanctions is "null and void" because Erickson "lacked the legal authority" to enter into such an agreement without the board's approval. Trustees and a person with first-hand knowledge of the discussions said the move is a precursor to a federal lawsuit asking a judge to invalidate the sanctions, because...

A Penn State trustee has told the NCAA that he intends to appeal college sports governing body's strict sanctions on the university for the Jerry Sandusky child sex abuse scandal.

Paterno family intends to appeal NCAA sanctionsBy GENARO C. ARMAS (AP Sports Writer) | The Associated Press – 18 hours ago STATE COLLEGE, Pa. (AP) -- Joe Paterno's family said it planned to appeal the sanctions imposed by the NCAA against Penn State for the Jerry Sandusky child sex abuse scandal. The governing body's response: Don't bother. Family lawyer Wick Sollers in a letter sent Friday to the NCAA said the Paternos would like to appeal the ''enormous damage'' done to Penn State, the community, athletes and the late Hall of Fame coach. He died in January at age 85....

Gotham City (wrongly) believed in Harvey Dent. Likewise, there are people who (wrongly) believed in NCAA president Mark Emmert. The heavy sanctions levied by Emmert against Penn State in the aftermath of the Freeh report was a result of public pressure, the justification to satisfy our culture’s bloodlust and demand for instant gratification. Someone needed to get clobbered at Penn State; it didn’t matter who. The report, a multi-million dollar project spanning eight months investigating Penn State’s (in)action into the Jerry Sandusky allegations, was designed to unearth exactly when and where university officials went wrong, as well as act as...

STATE COLLEGE, Pa. -- Backup Penn State safety Tim Buckley has become the first player to transfer from Penn State in the wake of NCAA sanctions, while the future of a more prominent player, star tailback Silas Redd, remains in question.

In yet another shocking development in the Penn State story, ousted president Graham Spanier will soon begin working with the federal government on projects related to national security, The Patriot-News of Harrisburg, Pa., first reported. In an email written to the paper, Spanier said: “For the next several months, as I transition to my post-presidential plans, I will be working on a special project for the U.S. government relating (to) national security.

The man who was seen being sexually assaulted in the Penn State showers by Jerry Sandusky in 2001 has come forward and identified himself to attorneys, who say that he plans to sue the university. A man claiming to be Victim 2, whom assistant coach Mike McQueary saw being molested in the shower by Sandusky, is being represented by four attorneys, including Joel Feller and Matt Casey of Philadelphia and Justine Andronici and Andrew Shubin of State College, according to a statement released by the attorneys today. The man's name is not being released to the public, but his attorneys...

Victim 2, the boy who was, until now, known to exist only because Mike McQueary saw him being molested by Jerry Sandusky in a Penn State shower in 2001, has come forward to two State College lawyers. Andrew Shubin and Justine Andronici, two lawyers who launched their own investigation into Sandusky's activities over the last four decades -- and the reactions of people around him -- say that Victim 2 has identified himself to them. As part of the investigation, they acquired voicemails from Sandusky to the man, and released those on www. rossfellercasey.com, the website of the Philadelphia law...