Penn State Sports Magazine
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/135208
NEWS & NOTES BWI file photo It didn't make prime time. Didn't even come close, thanks in part to a Red Wings-Blackhawks playoff game that went to overtime and a postgame show in which seemingly every last bit of NHL playoff minutia was explored at length. But those viewers who hung in there long enough on May 29 to see "Costas Tonight" essentially turn into "Costas This Morning" were offered an entirely different perspective on the Freeh report and former Penn State head coach Joe Paterno. Host Bob Costas welcomed three panelists – Paterno family spokesman Dan McGinn, former Pennsylvania Gov. Dick Thornburgh and Paterno family attorney Wick Sollers – for an in-depth discussion of the Louis Freeh-led investigation into the university's response to allegations of sexual abuse by Jerry Sandusky. With both Freeh and NCAA president Mark Emmert having declined invitations to appear on the show, Sollers, McGinn and Thornburgh challenged the veracity of Freeh's report and its characterization of Paterno's role in the Sandusky case, and attacked the NCAA's response. "The report itself is deeply flawed, and it is, in many respects, incom- plete, inaccurate," Thornburgh said. "In our review, we found that it relied much more on speculation and conjecture than on facts that were developed through the investigation." Added Sollers, "There's no instance where Joe Paterno ever asked anybody not to fully investigate, not to report, not to do the right thing. We know that from conversations with the lawyers, from other key protagonists in this matter, and across the board. Joe Paterno did what he thought was right with the information he had at the time." The big news – so big that it broke more than 12 hours before the taping aired – was the announcement that the Paterno family was filing a suit on behalf of Joe Paterno's estate, two former coaches (Jay Paterno and Bill Kenney), four faculty members (Peter Bordi, Terry Engelder, Spencer Niles and John O'Donnell), nine lettermen (Anthony Adams, Gerald Cadogan, Shamar Finney, Justin Kurpeikis, Rich Gardner, Josh Gaines, Patrick Mauti, Anwar Phillips and Michael Robinson) and five university trustees (Ryan McCombie, Anthony Lubrano, Al Clemens, Peter Khoury and Adam Taliaferro). The 40-page lawsuit, which was filed in the Court of Common Pleas of Centre County, asserts that the NCAA "acted in clear and direct violation of the organization's own rules based on a flawed report by former FBI director Louis Freeh." The Paternos are seeking to have the football sanctions against Penn State overturned, along with compensatory and punitive damages and reimbursement of legal costs. The Paterno estate has pledged to donate any net proceeds arising from the lawsuit to charity. The university is not a party to the suit. "The lawsuit is being filed against the NCAA and Mark Emmert, in his individual and official capacity as the president of the NCAA, and Edward Ray, who was the chairman of the executive committee of the NCAA," Sollers said. "It's being filed… to redress the NCAA's 100 percent adoption of the Freeh report and imposition of a binding consent decree against Penn State University. "The reality is that consent decree was imposed through coercion and threats behind the scenes and there was no ability for anyone to get redress. There was no board approval, there was no transparency, and there was no consideration of this consent decree."