Penn State Football: New Jerry Sandusky Book Angers Paterno Family

The Jerry Sandusky child sex abuse scandal happened only six months ago. It rocked Penn State to the point that Joe Paterno, Athletic Director Tim Curley and University President Graham Spanier were all either fired or suspended for their roles.

It's still ongoing, as a matter of fact, as Sandusky's legal proceedings continue to this day and his formal trial still has not yet begun.

Nonetheless, the Sandusky saga has gone on long enough that two former Pittsburgh Post-Gazette writers have finished and published a book titled Game Over: Jerry Sandusky, Penn State, and the Culture of Silence. Bill Moushey and Robert Dvorchak, the two authors, detailed "how a culture built around one deified coach with a glorious vision to have 'success with honor' fails to act in the best interests of the most vulnerable," according to the book blurb.

It's not terribly surprising, then, that Joe Paterno's family has come to the defense of the beloved former patriarch of the Penn State program.

Here's a statement they released today about the book:

A new book about the Jerry Sandusky case is attracting attention because of its egregious use of false and slanderous statements about the late Penn State Coach Joe Paterno. This unprofessional and irresponsible rehash from clip files and anonymous interviews was slapped together in a matter of weeks and rushed to market, as the authors have acknowledged.

The authors also admit that most people they contacted did not want to talk with them, and many of the ones who did talk insisted on not being identified. The price of their obsession with speed over accuracy is a book that distorts the truth and offers conclusions and theories for which the authors have no evidence.

To fully correct these errors and outright lies would take far more words than this slanderous account is worth. However, one outrageous and baseless claim that cannot go unchallenged is that Coach Paterno knew about a 1998 incident involving Jerry Sandusky that was investigated by local law enforcement. There is indisputable evidence showing that Coach Paterno was not informed about that investigation, as well as the Coach’s own sworn testimony to that effect.

Further, their claim that knowledge of Sandusky's alleged conduct led Coach Paterno to push for Sandusky's retirement in 1999 also is baseless and unsupported by any evidence.

These and many other lies, errors and slanderous allegations are proof that the only objective for these authors was to exploit this tragedy for their own personal gain by producing a fictionalized narrative that smears the reputation of Joe Paterno.

This is particularly forceful and aggressive language, but it's par for the course for whenever printed facts are being disputed. Moreover, it points out the inherent dangers of writing (and publishing!) a book that describes aspects of a criminal case that haven't been proven in a court of law first.

In the way the Paterno statement is worded, the family believes it can sue Moushey and Dvorchak. Whether the family actually wants to, of course, is another matter entirely. This scandal is fresh enough that rehashing it to keep a book out of publication may not be worth the pain and drama it brings right back to Penn State and the Paternos' respective (metaphorical) doorsteps.

We'll see where this situation goes from here. For now, the Paterno family has put the sports world on notice: They will not let critical re-tellings of the scandal go without vetting. That's not only their right; some would make the case that it's their responsibility to the memory of JoePa.