Paterno statue removed; NCAA will slap sanctions on Penn State football

Paterno statue removed; NCAA will slap sanctions on Penn State football

Associated Press

STATE COLLEGE, Pa.

The famed statue of Joe Paterno was taken down from outside the Penn State football stadium today as the NCAA announced it would be issuing sanctions against the university whose top officials were accused in a scathing report of burying child sex abuse allegations against a now-convicted retired assistant.

Workers lifted the 7-foot-tall statue off its base and used a forklift to move it into Beaver Stadium as the 100 to 150 students watched, some chanting, “We are Penn State.”

The university announced earlier today that it was taking down the monument in the wake of an investigative report that found the late coach and three other top Penn State administrators concealed sex abuse claims against Jerry Sandusky. Sandusky was convicted last month of 45 counts of sexual abuse of 10 boys.

Meanwhile, the NCAA said that that it would levy “corrective and punitive measures” against Penn State over the Sandusky scandal. The organization announced Sunday that it would spell out the sanctions on Monday but disclosed no details.

NCAA President Mark Emmert hasn’t ruled out the possibility of shutting down the Penn State football program in the wake of the scandal, adding that he had “never seen anything as egregious.”

The Paterno family issued a statement only hours later saying the statue’s removal “does not serve the victims of Jerry Sandusky’s horrible crimes or help heal the Penn State community.”

“We believe the only way to help the victims is to uncover the full truth,” said the family, which vowed its own investigation following the release of the report by former FBI director Louis Freeh. The family called the report “the equivalent of an indictment — a charging document written by a prosecutor — and an incomplete and unofficial one at that.”