Former Penn State football coach/campus legend Joe Paterno told the Washington Post he was afraid of "making a mistake" in handling the Jerry Sandusky child sex abuse allegations which ultimately cost Paterno his job and his reputation. In his first interview since the scandal broke and he was fired by the university, Paterno, 85, said he told school officials about the allegations, and not police, because he "didn’t know exactly how to handle" the situation. Paterno also said that even if he knew more specifics about the allegations, "I don’t know that it would have done any good, because I never heard of, of, rape and a man."
Paterno—who is currently undergoing radiation because of a recent diagnosis of lung cancer and wheelchair-bound because of a broken pelvis—spoke at length about how “shocked and saddened” he is at the scandal involving his former assistant coach and university. Sandusky has been charged with more than 50 counts of sexually abusing young boys over a 15-year period. Paterno described his relationship with Sandusky, who he worked with for 30 years, as “professional, not social.”
“I didn’t know exactly how to handle it and I was afraid to do something that might jeopardize what the university procedure was,” he told the Washington Post. “So I backed away and turned it over to some other people, people I thought would have a little more expertise than I did. It didn’t work out that way.”
Assistant coach Mike McQueary approached Paterno in 2002 to tell him that he witnessed Sandusky raping a 10-year-old boy in the Penn State shower, which came as a shock to Paterno:
"He [McQueary] was very upset and I said why, and he was very reluctant to get into it,” Paterno said. “He told me what he saw, and I said, what? He said it, well, looked like inappropriate, or fondling, I’m not quite sure exactly how he put it. I said you did what you had to do. It’s my job now to figure out what we want to do. So I sat around. It was a Saturday. Waited till Sunday because I wanted to make sure I knew what I was doing. And then I called my superiors and I said, ‘Hey, we got a problem, I think. Would you guys look into it?’ Cause I didn’t know, you know. We never had, until that point, 58 years I think, I had never had to deal with something like that. And I didn’t feel adequate."
At that point, Paterno set up a meeting for McQueary and Curley, the athletic director, and Schultz, who oversaw university police. McQueary gave a far more graphic description of what he witnessed to them than he said he did to JoePa out of respect for the coach. Looking back, Paterno says he never truly realized the depths of the allegations:
“You know, he didn’t want to get specific,” Paterno said. “And to be frank with you I don’t know that it would have done any good, because I never heard of, of, rape and a man. So I just did what I thought was best. I talked to people that I thought would be, if there was a problem, that would be following up on it.”
Ultimately, Paterno was hesitant to make follow-up calls about the allegations because he didn't want to be seen as trying to exert influence for or against Sandusky: “I didn’t know which way to go,” he said. “And rather than get in there and make a mistake . . .”
