STATE COLLEGE, Pa. -- Penn State football coach Joe Paterno has decided to retire at the end of the season, saying Wednesday that the effects of a child sex abuse scandal involving former heir apparent Jerry Sandusky have been overwhelming.
"I am absolutely devastated by the developments in this case. I grieve for the children and their families, and I pray for their comfort and relief," Paterno said in a statement released just after initial reports confirming his pending retirement.
Joe Paterno will not walk Penn State's sideline again after this season. The Nittany Lions play their final 2011 home game Saturday vs. Nebraska.
"I have come to work every day for the last 61 years with one clear goal in mind: To serve the best interests of this university and the young men who have been entrusted to my care. I have the same goal today.
"That's why I have decided to announce my retirement effective at the end of this season. At this moment the Board of Trustees should not spend a single minute discussing my status. They have far more important matters to address. I want to make this as easy for them as I possibly can.
"This is a tragedy. It is one of the great sorrows of my life. With the benefit of hindsight, I wish I had done more. My goals now are to keep my commitments to my players and staff and finish the season with dignity and determination. And then I will spend the rest of my life doing everything I can to help this university."
Sources have told ESPN that Paterno is planning to coach the 12th-ranked Nittany Lions in Saturday's home game -- their last home game of this season -- against No. 19 Nebraska.
Paterno has been besieged by criticism since Sandusky, his former defensive coordinator, was charged over the weekend with molesting eight young boys between 1994 and 2009. Athletic director Tim Curley and vice president Gary Schultz have been charged with failing to notify authorities after an eyewitness reported a 2002 assault.
Paterno, 84, is in the middle of his 46th season with the Nittany Lions. He's won 409 games, a record for major college football, but now, the grandfatherly coach known as "Joe Pa," who had painstakingly burnished a reputation for winning "the right way," leaves the only school he's ever coached in disgrace.
Mike and Mike in the Morning
ESPN's Jay Bilas says there is no way Penn State president Graham Spanier should keep his job. Plus, Bilas says Joe Paterno should not be allowed to coach on Saturday.
Paterno has not been accused of legal wrongdoing. But he has been assailed, in what the state police commissioner called a lapse of "moral responsibility," for not doing more to stop Sandusky.
Paterno's son, Scott, who has commented on his father's situation via Twitter, tweeted Wednesday, "Finally, thanks everyone for thoughts and prayers but please, pray for the victims."
Joe Paterno has been questioned over his apparent failure to follow up on a report of the 2002 incident, in which Sandusky allegedly sodomized a 10-year-old boy in the showers at the team's football complex. A witness, Mike McQueary, is currently receivers coach for the team but was a graduate assistant at the time.
Paterno told Tim Curley, who has since stepped down and is charged with lying to the state grand jury investigating the case. Schultz and Graham Spanier, the university president, could follow.
But in the place known as Happy Valley, none held the same status as Paterno. And in the end, he could not withstand the backlash from a scandal that goes well beyond the everyday stories of corruption in college sports.
"If this is true we were all fooled, along with scores of professionals trained in such things, and we grieve for the victims and their families," Paterno said Sunday, after the news broke, in a prepared statement. "They are in our prayers."
The coach defended his decision to take the news to Curley. Paterno said it was obvious that the graduate student was "distraught," but said the graduate student did not tell him about the "very specific actions" in the grand jury report.
After Paterno reported the incident to Curley, Sandusky was told to stay away from the school, but critics say the coach should have done more -- tried to identify and help the alleged victim, for example, or alerted authorities.
"Here we are again," John Salveson, former president of the Pennsylvania chapter of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, said in an interview earlier this week. "When an institution discovers abuse of a kid, their first reaction was to protect the reputation of the institution and the perpetrator."
Paterno's requirement that his players not just achieve success but adhere to a moral code, that they win with honor, transcended his sport. Mike Krzyzewski, the Duke basketball coach, said in June for an ESPN special on Paterno: "Values are never compromised. That's the bottom line."
Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.
Joe Paterno to retire?
Joe Paterno to retire?
"Everyone needs to believe in something. I believe I'll have another beer."
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Jo money pig
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jetcitywoman
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I feel for the innocent victims who's lives will never be the same after being abused by such a sick monster as Sandusky! I feel for the football players who dedicated so much of their young lives playing a sport they loved with a coach they loved and repected so highly. I have no sympathy for any of the adults involved, including Joe Paterno, who should have and could have done some thing to stop the abuse of these children long ago!
"The story of life is quicker than the blink of an eye. The story of love is hello and goodbye, until we meet again"! Jimi Hendrix
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MistValkyrie
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it's about f-ing time!!!!! between this coverup of the child molestation charges and all the football players who have gotten off of rape charges...which happens at least once a year in "happy valley", its about time someone got fired over this crap. I just can't believe it took so long. My heart goes out to all those poor kids who had to live with what those sick fucks did to them for so many years. I know them finally being brought to justice would do little to make up for what they went through, but I hope that it helps them a little.
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Don Hughes
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What is sick is at the press conference announcing the termination of Paterno, the VERY FIRST question from the media was "Who is coaching Saturday?"
Kids are being raped in the shower, and all the media cares about is the god damn football game??? This is the reason why I can't stand college and high school sports. They are kids!!! They elevate these kids to a place they shouldn't be at, their grades aren't the most important thing, and especially at the high school level in a small town, they put too much pressure on these kids. I've only been to one or two high school football games, and they were both Bellwood vs. Tyrone, one at each school. I was sickened by the fact they this "rivalry" was taken so seriously by grown human beings. These are kids just trying to play a game. I've coached youth basketball before, and the pressure some of these parents put on these kids is insane. Hell any music teacher has probably seen a kid or two pushed into music by their parents.
Anyways, did Joe deserves to be fired, maybe, maybe not. Should he have done more (like call the freaking cops), absolutely. I would like to think that if I was in McQueary's shoes, I'd have done one or two things;
1. Helped the kid and called the cops
2. Called the cops to help the kid
Kids are being raped in the shower, and all the media cares about is the god damn football game??? This is the reason why I can't stand college and high school sports. They are kids!!! They elevate these kids to a place they shouldn't be at, their grades aren't the most important thing, and especially at the high school level in a small town, they put too much pressure on these kids. I've only been to one or two high school football games, and they were both Bellwood vs. Tyrone, one at each school. I was sickened by the fact they this "rivalry" was taken so seriously by grown human beings. These are kids just trying to play a game. I've coached youth basketball before, and the pressure some of these parents put on these kids is insane. Hell any music teacher has probably seen a kid or two pushed into music by their parents.
Anyways, did Joe deserves to be fired, maybe, maybe not. Should he have done more (like call the freaking cops), absolutely. I would like to think that if I was in McQueary's shoes, I'd have done one or two things;
1. Helped the kid and called the cops
2. Called the cops to help the kid
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MistValkyrie
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Wrong. Again.MistValkyrie wrote:wow...that is screwed up!! and did you notice that they waited until AFTER the last home game to fire him...arghDon Hughes wrote:What is sick is at the press conference announcing the termination of Paterno, the VERY FIRST question from the media was "Who is coaching Saturday?"
You don't shoot a man in the dick!
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onegunguitar
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MistValkyrie
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