Paterno family ‘encouraged’ by NCAA suit

Joe Paterno’s family says it’s encouraged by word that Pa. Gov. Tom Corbett is filing a federal lawsuit against the NCAA over its sanctions against Penn State University.

The family of the late football coach released a statement Wednesday that says that Corbett “now realizes, as do many others, that there was an inexcusable rush to judgment” in the aftermath of the Jerry Sandusky child sex-abuse scandal.

The NCAA imposed a $60 million fine, a multiyear bowl ban and other penalties in the wake of a report by former FBI Director Louis Freeh that concluded Paterno and other Penn State officials covered up abuse reports. The scandal cost Paterno his job two months before his death last January at age 85.

Corbett held a news conference on Penn State’s State College campus to announce the filing in U.S. District Court in Harrisburg and to discuss his plans to sue the NCAA over sanctions imposed against Penn State.

The university agreed to the sanctions in July. They included a $60 million fine that would be used nationally to finance child abuse prevention grants. State and federal lawmakers have raised objections to the money being spent outside Pennsylvania.

Sandusky is a retired Penn State assistant football coach who was found guilty of sexually abusing boys. He’s serving 30 to 60 years in prison, though he maintains his innocence.