ESPN’s Ivan Maisel breaks down the Paterno family report and compares it to the Freeh report with Don Van Natta Jr. This interesting interview is in the form of a 36-minute podcast.
Van Natta said the Paterno report raised some significant questions for him. He, like most who have read the report, was particularly impressed with the information supplied by Jim Clemente. Meanwhile, Maisel conceded that we all have the benefit of hindsight, so it is hard to condemn anyone who had no idea of what was really going on at Penn State.
Second Mile is prominently mentioned by Van Natta, who remarks that they were never investigated and they got by completely unscathed.
Interestingly, Van Natta compared the Freeh report to the opening statement in a trial in the court of public opinion, whereas the Paterno report resembled a defense rebuttal. However, he says that Americans tend not to change their minds easily once they’re convinced.
Van Natta also touches on the self-contradiction by Louis Freeh about his non-interview with Joe Paterno.
Where is this thing going? Van Natta predicts the Paterno family will file a lawsuit in an attempt to overturn the sanctions. He feels that if the Free report is blown up, the sanctions should go out the window. In conclusion, he indicts the media in wanting to rush to judgment, not completely, but as an adjunct to the ever decreasing American attention span.
