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Former Penn State Football Players Speak Out At PSU Trustees Meeting

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- About 30 former Penn State football players showed up at a crowded Friday afternoon meeting of the Penn State Board of Trustees in Hershey, critical of the trustees handling of the Sandusky affair and their treatment of the late coach Joe Paterno.

"For 16 months they've pretty much remained in a protective cocoon, since they fired Joe," said former player Brian Masella.

Masella was a punter who played under Paterno in the 1970s.

He wants trustees to read the Thornburgh report, written for the Paterno family by former Attorney General Dick Thornburgh, which is sharply critical of the Freeh report commissioned by the trustees.

"I found the report to be inaccurate in some respects, to be speculative and unsupported by the record," said Thornburgh.

Gov. Tom Corbett, a trustee, was not moved.

"I don't think that's my role to get into competing reports," Corbett told KDKA's Jon Delano Friday afternoon.

But former players say that's exactly what the trustees should do.

"We wish them to look at it, read it, not like they did with the Freeh Report and not read it, and compare it and make some changes that basically goes more to the truth of what happened," noted Masella.

This was the first time the trustees took comments from the public; although, they limited comments to only 10 people.

On another matter, Corbett said he supports efforts among trustees to make the governor a non-voting ex-officio member of the Board of Trustees.

That was a recommendation of one of the board's committees.

RELATED LINKS:
More Penn State News
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