Rich Zeoli Talks To State Senator Jake Corman About NCAA/Penn State Settlement
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) – Rich Zeoli talked with State Senator Jake Corman on Talk Radio 1210 WPHT about the settlement reached between the NCAA and Penn State that alleviated some of the sanctions against the school and restored the wins taken away from football coach Joe Paterno.
Corman, who filed a lawsuit against the NCAA along with State Treasurer Rob McCord, said the settlement should exonerate the school's longtime head coach.
"We're very upset about what happened with Mr. Sandusky, but you don't do punishment on rumors or innuendo, you do it on fact. Even the prosecutor in the case, the Attorney General's office, exonerated Joe Paterno and said he did nothing wrong. If you actually look at the NCAA guidelines, Joe Paterno did exactly what he's supposed to do, which is report it to his superiors. Exactly what the NCAA wants him to do is report it to your superiors and then remove yourself from the process. [They] don't want coaches involved in these types of sexual assault cases. That's what Joe Paterno did."
He reiterated that he thought the NCAA was wrong to hold Paterno accountable for enabling Sandusky's crimes.
"As troubling as it is, what happened here, to make the punishments that the NCAA did without any facts of the case or any due process was extremely troubling. That's what our case was about, [through] discovery, we found out more information about what went on behind the scenes. We found out that the NCAA manipulated this outcome. They had a predetermined outcome. They manipulated the process to achieve that outcome and did not wait until the facts of the cases were out."
Corman explained that, under the agreement, Penn State will still provide $60 million to help fight child abuse around the Commonwealth
"We want to make sure something like this never happens again. That's the most important thing. We don't ever want another child to have to go through something like Mr. Sandusky put these kids through. So, hopefully, through these dollars, that Penn State is going to put forward, which they didn't have to, but they are, hopefully, we will go to not only helping those who already were victims of child abuse but will go to help educate communities and individuals around the commonwealth of Pennsylvania to make sure nothing like this ever happens again."