More Paterno bio excerpts reveal rift between coach, Sandusky

More excerpts from Joe Posnanski‘s biography on longtime Penn State coach Joe Paterno have been released four days before the book is set to be released.

Earlier this week, GQ was the first to publish a handful of excerpts. Today, the Patriot-News leaked more, which you can read HERE. They’re all interesting, but there are a few that stick out.

On hearing about Jerry Sandusky and Victim 2 from then-grad assistant Mike McQueary:

“Did you consider calling the police?” Posnanski asked.

“To be honest with you, I didn’t,” Paterno responded. “This isn’t my field. I didn’t know what to do. I had not seen anything. Jerry didn’t work for me anymore. I didn’t have anything to do with him. I tried to look through the Penn State guidelines to see what I was supposed to do. It said that I was supposed to call Tim [Curley]. So I did.”

In a previous testimony regarding the same situation, Paterno was quoted as saying “I ordinarily would have called people right away, but it was a Saturday morning and I didn’t want to interfere with their weekends.” Paterno later lamented that he didn’t do enough.

On Sandusky:

In 1993, Paterno wrote what the family would sometimes call the “Why I Hate Jerry Sandusky Memo.” In it Paterno complained that Sandusky had stopped recruiting, seemed constantly distracted, had lost his energy for coaching, and was more interested in his charity, The Second Mile. “He would gripe about Jerry all the time,” one family member said.

On the Freeh report:

The general media takeaway from this email chain [discussing how Penn State officials should handle McQueary’s testimony] was that Paterno had convinced [athletic director Tim] Curley to back off reporting Sandusky and to handle this in-house. Others familiar with the emails believed instead that Paterno had demanded they confront Sandusky.

The email in question, according to the Freeh report, comes just weeks after Sandusky molested Victim 2. “After giving it more thought and talking it over with Joe yesterday, I am uncomfortable with what we agreed were the next steps,” the email reads.

The report also indicates Curley, former president Graham Spanier and former VP Gary Schultz were prepared to execute an action plan after hearing about the Sandusky allegation. The plan included informing the board chairman of Sandusky’s charity, The Second Mile, child welfare services, and to speak with Sandusky. After Curley speaks with Paterno in late February, 2001, the plan changes.

Again, “Paterno” comes out Tuesday, Aug. 21. You can purchase it online or download it for Kindle. If you have $20 in disposable income, it sounds like it’s worth a read.