newjerseynewsroom.com

BY AMY REYNOLDS

NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM

For nearly 46 years, Penn State was considered a special school because of Joe Paterno’s high values and long list of triumphs during his decades of coaching football.

However, many people inside and outside of the college now view those four decades as an illusion.

On Thursday, former FBI director, Louis Freeh, released a report stating that Paterno, along with four other Penn State senior leaders, withheld information about defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky , convicted last month of 45 sexual abuse accounts, in order to avoid bad publicity, according to USA Today.

"The facts are the facts," Freeh said of Paterno. "He was an integral part of the act to conceal."

In fact, Freeh stated that Paterno had the ability to stop the sexual abuses “if he wished.”

Until this past fall, Paterno was known for winning games without lowering his standards in order to do so. In fact, Penn State’s graduation rates were infallible, according to the Washington Times.

“I doubt anybody could have imagined this. In eight months, he’s gone from St. Joe to something approaching the devil,” said Frank Fitzpatrick, a Philadelphia Inquirer columnist and author of two books on Paterno and Penn State.

“The contrast between the ethical standards we always associated with Joe and the complete lack of them in how this was handled — if what the Freeh Report says is true, and I have no reason to doubt it is, to sacrifice kids for the reputation of a football program, that’s pretty despicable. I can’t imagine anything more shocking than that,” Fitzpatrick added.

Several former athletes also noted that his astounding career, which consisted of 409 wins, two national championships and several charitable acts, is forever disgraced.

Attorneys representing Sandusky’s victims stated that the report showed that Penn State failed to protect the young children that were abused, CBS reported.

“The Freeh report is absolutely devastating to Penn State,” said Andrew Shubin and Justine Andronici, two members of a legal team that represented several victims in the case. “It confirms that at the highest level, Penn State officials, including the university president and head football coach, knew that Sandusky was a child predator, but made the deliberate and reprehensible decision to conceal his abuse. They chose to protect themselves, Penn State’s brand and image, and their football program instead of children.”