Penn State's Joe Paterno to Retire
Penn State football coach Joe Paterno said Wednesday he would retire at the end of the current football season, saying he wished he would have done more to bring attention to a former assistant’s sexual abuse of a child on campus.
“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,” he said in a released statement.
In grand jury testimony involving accusations of former Penn State defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky, testimony emerged that a graduate assistant in 2002 told Paterno he witnessed Sandusky molesting a boy in the school’s shower room.
Paterno, 84, alerted his boss, the school’s athletic director, but took no further steps. Critics have noted that Paterno should have contacted police.
Paterno said he made the decision to retire at the end of the season because “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.”