Jay Paterno Says Joe Paterno 'Didn't Understand The Issue' Of Sandusky Sex Abuse
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) – On Monday, the family of Joe Paterno released findings that challenge those of the Freeh Report, specifically in regard to what knowledge Paterno had of Jerry Sandusky's sexual abuse accusations.
"The truth is important in this situation for a couple reasons," Jay Paterno, Joe's son, told Angelo Cataldi and the 94WIP Morning Show on Tuesday. "Number o, obviously as a family member, we'd like the truth out there about your father and they way he lived his life. More importantly, the truth about Penn State because I think Penn State's name has been tarnished in all of this and I think part of it is, there has been a lack of defense on the part of the administration of this university to get factual information out there. And I think the third part, and by far the most important part of this, is that I think the victims in this tragedy deserve to know what really happened, and know really the causes of these kind of things."
Former FBI director Louis Freeh defended his report on the Sandusky scandal, while the Paterno family report called it a "rush to injustice."
"Well, I can you tell you this. In our house one of the topics we never talked about was anything sexual. In my house, I'm still waiting for the birds and bees talk before I get married," Jay Paterno said.
"One of the things, also, Jim Clemente says in his report is people like Jerry Sandusky are so good at pointing you away from what they're really about. He started a charity to help tens of thousands of kids around the state. They do a lot of things to point you in the opposite direction. Even if Mike McQueary comes and says he saw Jerry in the shower, I'm not sure exactly what I saw, it was something over the line, whatever it is. Your entire interaction with Jerry Sandusky over the past 30 years, points you the other way. Now granted, Joe [Paterno] was intelligent, no question, but he was not an expert in child physcology. He did not understand this issue. I didn't, I'm half his age and I have five kids. I read Clemente's report and literally finished it, and said to my wife, we have to have a different conversation with our own children."
Jay Paterno says that his father's character should lead people to believe that he acted as he should have.
"All that aside, to believe that Joe Paterno would harbor a guy like that knowingly, you would have to throw out an entire life's work of someone who gave his life to charity for children, charities for student athletes, did all kinds of things the other way, and to say in this one incident he was afraid of bad publicity and harbored this? It doesn't stand up to scrutiny. You would have to believe he was absolutely a horrible, vile human being, and I can tell you he was not. He was a wonderful human being," he said.
Jay Paterno Interview
