Board of Trustees Chairman Keith Masser still doesn’t think that Joe Paterno was fired, according to his deposition in the Corman lawsuit. Masser also said that the reason Paterno was fired “had nothing to do” with what he “had known or hadn’t done,” which contradicts an official Penn State release explaining the termination.

Here’s the text from Masser’s deposition in which he explains his view of Paterno’s firing (or, uh, “removal”):

And here’s the text about why the decision was made:

Of course, Joe Paterno was very obviously fired and Masser’s denial so long after the fact is just incredible. Recall the termination letter Cynthia Baldwin sent Paterno about the removal of items from his office and the return of his automobile as evidence that he was fired.

His explanation for why Paterno was fired also needs work. In 2012, the board released a lengthy statement regarding Paterno’s firing that said: “Our most important reason – by far – for this difficult decision flowed from what we learned on Nov. 5, for the first time, from a ‘presentment’ (report) by a Pennsylvania Grand Jury about Coach Paterno’s early 2011 sworn testimony.” Of course, in that testimony, it learned that Paterno did not call the police about information Mike McQueary had given him about Sandusky and Victim 2.

Keith Masser’s term as chair ends this summer.

20141124 – Corman – Deposition of KMasser – Compressed

Photo: Andy Colwell/AP

About the Author

Tim Gilbert

Former managing editor and staff writer.

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