The Paterno Family Will Conduct Their Own Non-Biased Investigation

To the Paterno family, the Freeh Report was merely the scribblings of an Inquisitor, a series of "opinions and interpretations [presented] as if they were absolute facts." Which is a shame, because for $6.5 million, seven months, hundreds of interviews and millions of records, you would have hoped for something a little more completist.

Enter the Paterno family, who is vowing to sponsor their own investigation to get to the bottom of what happened at Penn State. They released a statement this morning, which reads in part,

Following the release of the grand jury findings last fall, Joe Paterno called for a thorough, fair and transparent investigation. Like everyone else, Joe was stunned at the charges that were filed against Jerry Sandusky. At the same time, Joe cautioned against a rush to judgment on Penn State and its senior officials and reminded everyone that we owed it to the victims to uncover the full truth.

The announcement of the findings by the Freeh Group is yet another shocking turn of events in this crisis. We are dismayed by, and vehemently disagree with, some of the conclusions and assertions and the process by which they were developed. Mr. Freeh presented his opinions and interpretations as if they were absolute facts. We believe numerous issues in the report, and his commentary, bear further review.

Our interest has been and remains the uncovering of the truth. We have never tried to run from this crisis or shift all responsibility to others. To help prevent this sort of tragedy from happening again at Penn State or any other institution, it is imperative that the full story be told.

After the report was released, we instructed our attorneys and their experts to conduct a comprehensive review of the materials released by the Freeh Group as well as Mr. Freeh's presentation and press conference. We have also asked them to go beyond the report and identify additional information that should be analyzed. And we have asked the Freeh Group to preserve all records, notes and other materials related to the investigation and the presentation of their findings as we expect they will be the subject of great interest in the future.

The statement goes on to say that "to claim that [Joe Paterno] knowingly, intentionally protected a pedophile is false." Which, you know, you might want to hold off on asserting since your whole schtick has been "let's not jump to conclusions here."