This Sunday, former Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky sat down for an interview with a NY Times reporter to discuss everything from his life growing up to the allegations of sexual abuse. Victims are outraged after hearing his statements, while others are puzzled as to why he gave another interview. During the nearly 4-hour conversation in the presence of his defense attorney, Sandusky is bumbling, nervous, and at times seemingly incoherent. He makes a number of potentially damning admissions while simultaneously maintaining his innocence. We have provided some excerpts from that interview.
On his experience with the Second Mile:
“I had a great experience with people. I had kid after kid after kid who might say I was a father figure like Shane or something like that and they just twisted that all. And you know, some things could be plausible that they came up with, but they haven’t been fair and I guess it’s created a whole monster.”
On physical activity with children:
“I don’t, I wasn’t, I mean, I was just me. I don’t know. You know, like I said, I grew up in a recreation center that was constant activity. I worked on a playground. I loved active kids. I couldn’t stand to have kids sitting around doing nothing. I wanted them playing ball. I wanted them doing this… When I was growing up we went to the swimming pool. The swimming pool would go like ‘swwshhh” when my friends and I would go in the pool… I wasn’t being anything else other than, you know, like, uh, when I worked on a playground that’s what I wanted, that’s what I did. I had other jobs, you know but they didn’t interrelate. I love just fooling, you know, I got kids involved throwing water balloons, you know like, that, you know, like at picnics I had water balloon tosses. I would do those kinds of things.”
On the first allegations: (Referring to the initial confrontation by the victim’s mother)
“This is how she started: You showered with him, did you shower with him, have you showered with other kids… yes. Nothing, nothing happened. I said to her, I said, can we get your son and, and, and maybe just talk. ‘Oh, no, no not gonna do that. Not gonna do that.’ I said well, now I feel bad for that perception. You know, that he had something that bothered him like that. I’m sure I said I’m sorry. I don’t, with all my heart; I don’t believe I said anything about killing myself or anything like that… That’s been reported, I know that’s been reported, I can’t believe I said that. I would be 95%, 99% sure, I don’t know why I would have said that.”
When asked about his thoughts on the litany of victims who have come forward, Sandusky likened the situations to commonplace issues experiences within a family setting:
“Those kinds of things, there are instances where you get wrapped up and you have pride and you want to see certain things. You want to see someone responding, someone who is sensitive, in particular cases it was asking him to do something for somebody else, for others. And if you’re tired, maybe you its came for football camp for three weeks or something, you know, you might, you might even say things that could be hurtful, to them too. So, those kind of things happen. You know, they happen in families. Things happen in families, the only thing that, that is probably more different… You’re not there on a regular basis to recover. To uh, to, and, and, and kids might not understand that. They might not have a clue about unconditional love. They might not have a clue about, you’re gonna have conflicts, you’re gonna have ups and downs, but you know, if, if, if it means enough to you, you get through it.”
In conclusion, when asked about his life today, Sandusky had this to say:
“I miss, you know, I miss coaching, I miss Second Mile, I miss Second Mile kids, I miss having relationships with all kinds of people, I miss my own grandkids, I miss… I don’t miss my dog. The one that that can never be taken away is the memories. You know, fighting, aligning with great people, having enjoyment… People: seeing them committed, caring, having the courage. Those football players, you know, upset somebody that they shouldn’t have between able to beat or one of the second mile kids overcame huge obstacles and succeeded, and they can never take away all those memories and family did what we asked and how nobody was ever perfect but whether it was play on the field , but, you know, you just cling to those memories.”
Stay tuned as we continue our coverage and legal analysis of the NCAA Sex Scandal, Penn State, and Syracuse University.
Related Sources:
NY Times
ABC News
CBS News
