The NCAA used the Freeh Report as the basis of its sanctions against Penn State for covering up the child sex abuse crimes of former assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky, with NCAA president Mark Emmert defending the NCAA's use of the report by pointing out its comprehensiveness. But a member of the team that wrote the report now says it should not have been used for that purpose.
"That document was not meant to be used as the sole piece, or the large piece, of the NCAA's decision making," a source familiar with the investigation told The Chronicle on Thursday. "It was meant to be a mechanism to help Penn State move forward. To be used otherwise creates an obstacle to the institution changing."
The article in which this is being reported is very vague about the exact status of the person taking issue with the NCAA, but it's not surprising that someone would have questions about the NCAA's decision-making process. The Freeh report, after all, was commissioned by Penn State.
"The sanctions against Penn State were really overwhelming, and no one imagined the report being used to do that," this person said. "People thought it would help others draw conclusions about what happened and provide a guide for leaders to be able to identify minefields and navigate through them.
"Instead, Emmert took the report and used Penn State's own resources to do them in," the person said. "The institution is made of people, too. And they don't deserve this."
It's hard to comment further on this without knowing exactly who said it. But we surely haven't heard the last of these kinds of questions.
Via Jason Kirk.
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