New Joe Paterno Report, Commissioned By Late Coach’s Family, Due Out This Weekend
A report commissioned by Joe Paterno’s family about the Penn State scandal is due out this weekend, and family members hope it clears the late coach’s name.
A previous report, authored by former FBI head Louis Freeh, was critical of Paterno and the role he served in the university’s scandal. The report noted that Paterno stood in the way of attempts to involve police on an investigation of assistant coach Jerry Sandusky, who was convicted of sexually assaulting young boys at the university.
The new Joe Paterno report comes after Paterno’s widow, Sue Paterno, sent a letter to Penn State players on Friday that her report will present “a persuasive critique of the Freeh report as a total disservice to victims of Sandusky and the cause of preventing child sex offenses,” ESPN reported.
The report questions the conclusions and evidence of the Freeh report.
“When the Freeh report was released last July, I was as shocked as anyone by the findings and by Mr. Freeh’s extraordinary attack on Joe’s character and integrity. I did not recognize the man Mr. Freeh described,” Sue Paterno wrote. “I am here to tell you as definitively and forcefully as I know how that Mr. Freeh could not have been more wrong in his assessment of Joe.”
Sue Paterno is making the rounds in the media as well to support the new Joe Paterno report. She will sit down with Katie Couric to talk about her work to clear her husband’s name, offiicials from Katie announced.
Last year the NCAA imposed a number of sanctions on Penn State in the wake of the scandal, including a four-year bowl ban.
The new Joe Paterno report was compiled by experts who reviewed Freeh’s findings and Joe Paterno’s actions, Sue Paterno wrote. The letter will “unreservedly and forcefully confirm my beliefs about Joe’s conduct,” she wrote.
