The seemingly never-ending Paterno vs. Penn State battle royale is, well, never going to end.
The latest salvo in the ongoing feud between the two parties was fired by Jay Paterno, the son of the late Hall of Fame Nittany Lions head coach. Joe Paterno was fired in November of 2011 by Penn State in the wake of the Jerry Sandusky child-sex scandal, with his son facing a similar fate two months later.
In confirming his departure in January of 2012, Paterno said in a statement that he and his father’s replacement, Bill O’Brien, “reached the conclusion” that he would not be a part of the new coaching staff. The younger expressed no bitterness in his farewell statement, but, more than two years later, he has expressed it by filing a lawsuit against Penn State.
The suit was filed in a Philadelphia federal court and seeks $1 million in damages from the university. Former PSU assistant Bill Kenney is also a plaintiff the suit.
The suit claims in part that “Penn State destroyed any realistic prospect Plaintiffs had to obtain other comparable positions for which they were qualified and would have otherwise been competitive, either at the collegiate or professional level, or with positions with national media companies.” In connection to that claim, the suit claims that, after his departure from Penn State, Paterno applied for head-coaching jobs at Boston College, Colorado, UConn and James Madison; Paterno, it’s claimed, didn’t receive an interview from any of those four schools.
You can view the entire lawsuit by clicking HERE.
In a statement, Penn State responded to the lawsuit thusly:
“It is common practice for incoming head coaches to select their own coaching staff. Penn State will have no further comment on this matter.”
Neither Paterno nor Kenney have been hired as assistant coaches since they “parted ways” with Penn State 30 months ago. Paterno looked into running for lieutenant governor of the state of Pennsylvania but opted out of that political pursuit.
In February of this year, the Paterno family added Penn State as a defendant in its lawsuit against the NCAA.