Penn State Football: School Does Right Thing with Payment to Paterno Family

Penn State announced another large amount of money paid in the fallout of the Jerry Sandusky scandal on Thursday evening. Just days after a report that the school had paid upwards of $7.5 million on its response to the Sandusky scandal (most of which came from an independent investigation on the school's handling of the situation), Penn State announced that it was paying the family of Joe Paterno as if he had retired at the end of the season.

Here's more from the AP:

The school turned over four checks Thursday worth more than $3 million for bonuses that covered the season, bowl game and entire career, according to a university spokeswoman.

A breakdown provided by Penn State included the use by Paterno's family of a Beaver Stadium suite for 25 years and $900,000 from television and radio revenue from last season. Half the broadcast revenues were paid in February, and the rest will be paid later this year, the school said...

Other elements of the package include a final paycheck of $34,000, a death benefit of $51,000 and $350,000 - payable over five years - under a 1986 consulting agreement. The university also agreed to forgive $350,000 in outstanding loans and debt. No explanation was provided regarding Paterno's debts to the school.

Paterno family attorney Wick Sollers took a slightly different approach to the payment (per the Boston Herald):

The university made payments today pursuant to Coach Paterno’s contract. In January, university officials acknowledged that they would fully honor the contract.

Because a number of reporters have inquired about the family’s reaction to the ’settlement,’ it should be noted that this exercise was a straightforward payment of monies indisputably owed to the Paterno estate...The university had requested that the family agree to a full release in return for the payments under the contract. That request was declined and no release was signed. It would be incorrect, therefore, to characterize the payments as a settlement.

With no release in place, the threat of litigation by the Paterno family is still present, though there have been no reports that such a lawsuit is forthcoming.

Now, the decision to fully honor Paterno's contract is the correct one, from a public standpoint. Penn State's football legacy is basically nothing without Paterno, which means any lingering acrimony between his family and the school directly threatens the history and goodwill surrounding the football program and its fans.

That said, we're now well past $10 million spent by Penn State in the wake of this scandal, and that's money that it's essentially spending on itself—in an independent internal review, PR messaging and advertising, and now the hefty (but deserved) payment to the Paternos.

Yes, managing public perception of the school is important.

But when the school's expenditures to that end are this substantial and are being monitored this closely, their very existence creates another perception, and one that's a lot harder to control—that the school's primary aim in all this is self-protection, and that the alleged crimes and alleged victims are less important.

Now, it's difficult to address these aspects when the Sandusky case is still in pre-trial, but if Penn State can spend over $10 million like this and the task of fundraising for child sex abuse support falls to the students (who, it should be noted, stepped up in a huge way by raising over $500,000 for RAINN), is that really the most appropriate response by the school?