I Just Did What I Thought Was Best

I Just Did What I Thought Was Best



I Just Did What I Thought Was Best



In the first public interview since the Jerry Sandusky child sex abuse scandal broke in early November, crippling Penn State University and casting a black eye over the football program he had helped to build, former Nittany Lions head coach Joe Paterno and wife Sue spoke at length to the Washington Post's Sally Jenkins this week. The interview, posted online Saturday at 4 p.m. and available in the paper's Sunday print edition, includes many thoughts from Paterno on the scandal itself, how it was handled, the victims in the case, his future plans and more.

Curley and Schultz are both facing charges of perjury and failure to report, and maintain that McQueary "did not indicate there was something of a sexual nature" during their meeting. At the time, Curley responded by telling Sandusky he was banned from coming into the building with children from his charity, The Second Mile, but otherwise did not restrict access. The other interesting tidbit in the story surrounded Paterno's firing. An assistant athletic director delivered a piece of paper with the name of Penn State vice chairman of trustees, John Surma and a phone number to Paterno's home. Paterno, who was in his pajamas, called the number and Surma told him he was fired. After 61 years, that's it. Paterno's wife, Sue, was so upset that she redialed the number after Paterno hung up.

"After 61 years he deserved better," she said. "He deserved better." The interview was done last week in Paterno's home and was monitored by Paterno's attorney Wick Sollers of the Washington law firm King & Spalding, and a communications adviser, Dan McGinn of TMG Strategies. Paterno, 85, is currently battling lung cancer and was confined to a wheelchair during the interview. On Friday, Paterno was admitted to a hospital in State College with complications from ongoing chemotherapy treatments. While the interview is interesting because it's the first time Paterno has spoken to the media since he was fired, the story is hardly a revelation. In general, it rehashes the accepted account as outlined in previous testimony, then splashes in some interesting color to give us a better look at Paterno as a man.

It might leave some angry at Paterno's inaction and his excuses for more or less ignoring what ...