Penn State football was all but leveled Monday by an NCAA ruling that wiped away 14 years of coach Joe Paterno's victories and imposed a mountain of fines and penalties, crippling a program whose pedophile assistant coach spent uncounted years molesting children, sometimes on university property.
The famed statue of Joe Paterno was taken down from outside the Penn State football stadium Sunday as the NCAA announced it would be issuing sanctions against the university whose top officials were accused in a scathing report of burying child sex abuse allegations against a now-convicted retired assistant.
The NCAA announced Sunday that it will issue sanctions against Penn State in the wake of a scathing report that found that top university officials buried child sex abuse allegations against a now-convicted retired assistant and led to the tearing down of the famed statue of once-sainted coach Joe Paterno.
Jerry Sandusky's lawyers said Saturday they tried to quit at the start of jury selection in his child sex abuse trial because they weren't given enough time to prepare, raising an argument on the trial's speed that could become the thrust of an appeal.
Penn State trustees say they decided to oust Joe Paterno in part because the football coach didn't meet a moral obligation to do more to alert authorities about a child sex abuse allegation against a retired assistant coach.
Penn State President Rodney Erickson wrapped up three cities in three days of often tense meetings with alumni assuring this: "We're going to be OK."
Former Penn State running back Franco Harris doesn't believe Joe Paterno's firing was in the school's best interest and urged alumni to be relentless.
Joe Paterno's son, Scott, said Thursday it's becoming apparent that his father's ouster as Penn State head coach by school trustees "was not handled well."
As word leaked that Bill O'Brien would be the next head football coach at Penn State, some prominent alumni illustrated the same narrow-minded, shortsighted thinking that contributed to the mess at their alma mater.
