Paterno family drops lawsuit against NCAA

HARRISBURG, Pa. — Late Penn State football coach Joe Paterno’s family dropped a lawsuit Friday against the NCAA over its use of a report in the Jerry Sandusky child-molestation scandal to punish Paterno and the university.

Paterno’s estate, his son Jay and former assistant William Kenney discontinued their case. The NCAA called it a voluntary decision and said there was no payment involved.

NCAA chief legal officer Donald Remy claimed a total victory for his organization, which he said acted reasonably in adopting conclusions from a university-commissioned report authored by a team led by former FBI director Louis Freeh.

“The Paterno family characterized this case as a ‘search for the truth,’” Remy said. “Its decision today, after years of investigation and discovery, to abandon its lawsuit rather than subject those facts to courtroom examination is telling.”

He said the Paterno family wasted time, effort and money in the case. Messages left for the Paternos and their lawyers were not immediately returned.

The lawsuit had claimed that college sports’ governing body damaged the Paterno estate’s commercial interests through its use of the Freeh report. Kenney and Jay Paterno alleged the Freeh report rendered them unable to find comparable coaching work.

The Freeh report concluded Joe Paterno and other administrators hushed up a 2001 complaint against Sandusky showering with a boy, for fear of bad publicity.

Paterno, who died in early 2012, was never charged criminally, but three others who were at high-ranking jobs when he was coach are expected to soon report to jail to serve criminal sentences for their response to the 2001 complaint.