Penn State Officials Planning Coach Paterno's Exit, Report Says

(NewsCore) - Penn State coach Joe Paterno said Tuesday he wanted to address the child sex abuse scandal that has engulfed his football program, but was not given the chance by the university's president.

"I know you guys have a lot of questions. And I was hoping I was going to be able to answer them today," the 84-year-old coach said as he left his house to attend practice.

Earlier Tuesday, Paterno's weekly news conference was called off abruptly by Penn State president Graham Spanier, who cited the ongoing legal issues for the decision.

Shortly afterward, The New York Times reported that top university officials were discussing how to bring Paterno's historic career to an end, just days after former defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky was charged with child sex abuse.

In an apparent split on how to move forward, Paterno said he planned to address the scandal during his regularly scheduled news conference, but Spanier called him at home to tell him the event was canceled without providing an explanation.

The athletic department had said Monday night Paterno would only answer questions about Penn State's upcoming game against Nebraska.

Though he has not been charged with a crime, Paterno is facing a massive backlash over his immediate response to learning of Sandusky's alleged sexual abuse of a child in 2002 in the Penn State locker room.

Sandusky, 67, has been charged with 21 felony counts for allegedly abusing eight victims over a period of 15 years. The allegations were laid out in a grand jury report.

Six of the eight alleged victims have been identified by investigators, but their names have not been made public.

A possible ninth victim came forward to police over the weekend after seeing the reports of Sandusky's arrest, according to the Harrisburg Patriot-News.

Athletic director Tim Curley and vice president for finance and business Gary Schultz were charged with perjury and failure to notify authorities about the allegations. They stepped down from their positions Sunday night in order to defend themselves.

According to the indictment, Paterno notified Curley after a then-graduate assistant -- identified by the Patriot-News as Mike McQueary -- reported that he witnessed Sandusky having sexual intercourse with a boy in the Penn State locker room shower. McQueary reportedly spoke to his father about what he had seen before alerting Paterno.

Paterno's legal requirement was that he notify his superior, but on Monday Pennsylvania state police Commissioner Frank Noonan suggested there was a "moral responsibility" for the coach to make sure police were contacted.

Noonan's obvious disapproval was echoed Tuesday by one of the victim's parents, who lashed out at university officials for their handling of the situation.

"I'm so upset," said the mother of the now 24-year-old victim, who is referred to as Victim Six in the indictment. "My son is extremely distraught, and now to see how we were betrayed, words cannot tell you.

"To see that Graham Spanier is putting his unconditional support behind Curley and Shultz when he should be putting his support behind the victims, it just makes them victims all over again."

Pennsylvania Attorney General Linda Kelly said Monday the university's failure to report the alleged incidents to police or child-protection officials likely led to further victimization of young boys for several years.

"I don't even have words to talk about the betrayal that I feel," said the mother of Victim Six. "[McQueary] was a grown man, and he saw a boy being sodomized ... He ran and called his daddy?"

In a statement released Sunday night, Paterno maintained he did what he "was supposed to do" under the law.

After learning of the alleged 2002 incident, the university banned Sandusky from holding youth football camps on the main campus, but he continued to hold the events on Penn State satellite campuses until 2008.

Sandusky was scheduled to appear in court Wednesday, but the hearing has been pushed back to Dec. 7, the Patriot-News reported.