Court papers: Joe Paterno knew about Jerry Sandusky

Penn State head football coach Joe Paterno, told by a teenage boy in 1976 that assistant coach Jerry Sandusky molested him in a shower, responded that he didn’t want to hear about it and had “a football season to worry about,” according to court documents unsealed Tuesday.

“Is it accurate that Coach Paterno quickly said to you, ‘I don’t want to hear about any of that kind of stuff, I have a football season to worry about’?” a lawyer for Penn State’s insurance carrier asked the man.

Excerpts of the man’s testimony were among dozens of documents made public Tuesday in Penn State’s fight with Pennsylvania Manufacturers’ Association Insurance Co. over payments to Sandusky’s accusers.

Sandusky was convicted in 2012 of dozens of child sexual-abuse counts and is serving decades in state prison while he appeals.

A judge disclosed the existence of the 1976 allegation two months ago, along with claims Penn State coaches witnessed inappropriate contact between Sandusky and children in the 1980s, but the newly unsealed documents provided greater detail.

Paterno told a grand jury in 2011 he first learned of Sandusky’s inappropriate sexual contact in 2001, though records show high-ranking Penn State officials dealt with a complaint in 1998 from a woman whose son had showered with Sandusky.