Expounding -- and exploding -- upon yesterday's bombshell, separate reports dropped simultaneously Friday afternoon by CNN and NBC News state Joe Paterno and his assistant coaches had intimate knowledge of Jerry Sandusky's sexual abuse of children dating as far back as 1971 and lasting through the longtime defensive coordinator's 1998 retirement -- and did nothing to stop it.
Sara Ganim reported for CNN that a 15-year-old living in a foster home was picked up by a 27-year-old Sandusky in 1971 and subsequently raped in Penn State's locker room:
Victim A says he was hitchhiking when Sandusky picked him up, bought him beer, gave him pot -- and then attacked him as he was standing at a urinal in a Penn State bathroom.
"I felt his presence behind me," he said. "I felt his left knee on the back of my knee, and his arms went around me, grabbing my ..." he trails off. "He said, 'Let me help you with this.'"
Victim A said he jerked his head back, hitting Sandusky in the jaw. His head started bleeding and they both fell to the floor.
"Then there was a wrestling session," he says. "And I lost. One thing led to another and the crime happened."
At the behest of his foster father, the victim says he called Penn State's football offices and spoke to two men -- one of whom he says was undoubtedly Paterno -- and the men subsequently threatened to report him to the authorities.
The man was not included in the state of Pennsylvania's original investigation because his case fell outside the statute of limitations.
"I'd be willing to sit on a witness stand and confront Joe Paterno," the man told CNN last year. "Unfortunately he died and I didn't get to."
As if that wasn't horrific enough, NBC News reported that as many as six of Paterno's former assistants had personal knowledge of Sandusky's crimes -- also dating back to the 1970's:
But sources told NBC News that one former Penn State assistant coach witnessed an incident in the late 1970s. Three other coaches — who have gone on to work in the NFL and at Division I colleges — allegedly saw inappropriate conduct between Sandusky and boys in the early and mid-1990s.
"You won't believe what I just saw," one of those three coaches blurted out after bursting into a room filled with Penn State football staff, according to sources who spoke to a person who was in that room.
The revelations have risen out of a trial between Penn State and its insurers, as the school seeks reimbursement for the more than $60 million it has doled out to Sandusky's victims.
