By Christian Marrone

As a former Penn State Football player who proudly signed the Letterman’s letter of July 5, 2016 requesting that the university restore the statue, honor Joe Paterno and apologize to his family, I am compelled to respond to your July 18, 2016 editorial in which you unfairly excoriate those who coached and played football at Penn State.











Since November 2011, I’ve read the Inquirer’s coverage – and editorializing -- of a false narrative based on nothing more than a rush to judgment. Sadly, your paper has favored sensationalism that sells papers over simple fact finding and due process. Long after he has been laid to rest, my coach, Joe Paterno -- who was never charged with committing, witnessing or covering up a crime – has been indicted by your paper over and over again in nearly every Penn State news cycle, without any real consideration for the facts. But shamefully, you have never once penned a single editorial that exposes the accountability of The Second Mile or the shortcomings of Pennsylvania’s child protective services that rubber-stamped Jerry Sandusky as an adoptive parent for decades. Arguably, it was you, the media, who made it about football when you chose to write about statues instead of the undisputed gateways to Sandusky’s victims.



had read the documents recently unsealed by a Philadelphia judge, you would have included in

your editorial that they provided no additional or definitive information regarding Joe Paterno’s

knowledge of accusations that allegedly date back to the 1970s. If you had read the strongly

worded

that both Tom Bradley and Greg Schiano emphatically denied any knowledge of Sandusky’s

alleged crimes. But you again chose to omit these facts. Instead, you cherry picked double and

triple hearsay statements and uncorroborated information that the

the benefit of attracting readership. Your calculated omission and disregard of facts in your most recent editorial are striking. If youhad read the documents recently unsealed by a Philadelphia judge, you would have included inyour editorial that they provided no additional or definitive information regarding Joe Paterno’sknowledge of accusations that allegedly date back to the 1970s. If you had read the stronglyworded reactions from coaches who fortunately still can defend themselves, you would knowthat both Tom Bradley and Greg Schiano emphatically denied any knowledge of Sandusky’salleged crimes. But you again chose to omit these facts. Instead, you cherry picked double andtriple hearsay statements and uncorroborated information that the Attorney General’s office stated had no merit to intentionally put Paterno and Penn State football back in the headlines forthe benefit of attracting readership.



As a news organization, and in your investigative capacity, I challenge you to truly examine several critical aspects of this complex case that remain inexplicably untouched by the media thus far.

My former classmate, teammate and roommate, Mike McQueary, has no fewer than four versions on record of what he allegedly witnessed in the Lasch Building in 2001. Please find out why.

The Penn State Board of Trustees paid Louis Freeh more than $8 million to create a highly flawed, factually insufficient representation of Penn State’s accountability in the Sandusky saga that has been summarily dismissed by many including the former Attorney General of United States, Dick Thornburgh. Please find out why.

The Penn State Board of Trustees paid $93 million in settlements to insufficiently vetted claimants and is set to elect the trustee that lead this effort as its new chairman. Please find out why.



Until the Philadelphia Inquirer finally tackles the real questions that get to facts of the Sandusky

scandal, we will be left to conclude that it is not the Penn State community with football-induced

delusion, as you assert, but instead that Inquirer editorial board itself, anonymously recycling a

horribly false narrative with reckless impunity in a desperate attempt to simply sell papers.



Christian P. Marrone

Class of 1997