712 Digital Group - top

Paterno to Retire at End of Season

Sports

November 9th, 2011 by Jim Field

STATE COLLEGE, Pa. (AP) – Penn State football coach Joe Paterno has decided to retire at the end of the season, his long career brought down by his failure to do more about an allegation of child sex abuse against a former assistant.  Paterno said in a statement Wednesday he is “absolutely devastated” by the developments in the case of Jerry Sandusky, a former defensive coordinator accused of molesting eight boys over 15 years.  Paterno says the board of trustees should “not spend a single minute discussing my status. They have far more important matters to address.”  “This is a tragedy,” Paterno says. “It is one of the great sorrows of my life. With the benefit of hindsight, I wish I had done more.”  Penn State’s athletic director and a vice president have already stepped down after being charged criminally with failing to notify authorities after an eyewitness reported a 2002 assault.  Paterno has not been accused of legal wrongdoing. But he has been assailed for what the state police commissioner called a lapse
of “moral responsibility” for not doing more to stop Sandusky, whose attorney maintains his client’s innocence.