Joe Paterno Estate Given $5.7 Million
Long-time Penn State coach Joe Paterno passed away in January and now his estate has received $5.7 million from his former employer, the very university that fired JoePa for failure to properly report Jerry Sandusky for suspected sexual assault against children, even though Paterno had directly reported Sandusky to school officials.
The $5.7 million includes the remaining part of the Joe Paterno contract with the university, including a $3 million retirement bonus that was amended onto Joe Paterno’s contract in 2011, prior to the Jerry Sandusky case being blown wide open.
Also included in the $5.7 million worth of payments is $1,000 per month which will be paid to Paterno’s widow for the rest of her life and an additional $900,000 in TV and radio revenue generated under Joe Paterno’s leadership.
While Joe Paterno left under a cloud of investigations the universities officials ultimately decided to pay his full contract, likely because of pressure from student, alumni and even some faculty members who believe JoePa was turned into a scapegoat by a University board that failed to act on several complaints against Jerry Sandusky over the years.
In honoring the contract in full a Penn State spokesman says it “recognized coach Paterno’s decades-long contributions to our football program and to the entire university.”
In the meantime the case of Jerry Sandusky continues on as he fights charges that he molested 10 boys including eight on campus and five in the Penn State football headquarters.
Do you think Penn State made the right decision in honoring the full extent of Joe Paterno’s contract?
