Joe Paterno Gives First Interview Since Scandal

Former Penn State head coach Joe Paterno has given his first interview since his firing to Sally Jenkins of the Washington Post. In the long interview with Jenkins, Paterno described the moment he heard Mike McQueary’s story in 2002 about former defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky's actions in a team shower:

“He was very upset and I said why, and he was very reluctant to get into it,” Paterno said. “He told me what he saw, and I said, what? He said it, well, looked like inappropriate, or fondling, I’m not quite sure exactly how he put it. I said you did what you had to do. It’s my job now to figure out what we want to do. So I sat around. It was a Saturday. Waited till Sunday because I wanted to make sure I knew what I was doing. And then I called my superiors and I said, ‘Hey, we got a problem, I think. Would you guys look into it?’ Cause I didn’t know, you know. We never had, until that point, 58 years I think, I had never had to deal with something like that. And I didn’t feel adequate.”

Paterno also added: “In hindsight, I wish I had done more.”

When asked why he did not do more after hearing McQueary’s story, Paterno said, according to Jenkins: