Former Penn State Wide Receiver "Heartbroken" Over Sandusky Scandal
Tony Twymon, who lives in South Florida, says he is feeling "a lot of mixed emotions"
Tony Twymon played for Joe Paterno’s Penn State football team while Jerry Sandusky was a coach there – and says he is shocked at the new findings of a federal investigation on the Sandusky sex abuse scandal. “I’m heartbroken. It’s a lot of mixed emotions,” says Twymon, a former Nittany Lions receiver who lives in South Florida.
Tony Twymon played for Joe Paterno’s Penn State football team while Jerry Sandusky was a coach there – and says he is shocked at the new findings of a federal investigation on the Sandusky sex abuse scandal.
“I’m heartbroken. It’s a lot of mixed emotions,” says Twymon, a former Nittany Lions receiver who lives in South Florida. “It was a lot of hard work going there and playing football there and graduating there, and once a Penn Stater, always a Penn Stater.”
Twymon has the ring from his 1994 championship season, but he now also must cope with the terrible allegations made in the report by former FBI Director Louis Freeh on Thursday.
Freeh concluded that Paterno – a man revered across the college football landscape – and other top leaders at Penn State were in on a cover-up, one that allowed Sandusky to keep abusing kids.
“There’s a lot of victims out there that I can’t imagine – as much as I try to think about what they’re going through, I can’t imagine the pain and the mental anguish that these young men are dealing with. And to know that it came from someone that I’ve known for over two decades, it’s unfathomable,” Twymon said.
Sandusky, who was the defensive coordinator, did not coach Twymon’s position while he was on the team.
These days Twymon is a small business owner who sells high-tech exercise gear. But he has stayed close to the Penn State community. He attended Paterno’s funeral, and on Wednesday he received a letter, sent by Paterno’s son, that was written by Paterno before his death.
In it Paterno said, “Penn Staters across the globe should feel no shame in saying ‘We are … Penn State.’ This is a great University with one of the best academic performing football programs in major college athletics. Those are facts – and nothing that has been alleged changes them.”
Some people think that Paterno’s statue should be taken down at the university. Twymon said that if you look at just his football accomplishments, it should not be removed – but when all the other factors from Thursday’s report are taken into account, then it’s debatable.
“That was my leadership,” Tywmon said. “The president of the university – that’s what’s on my degree. Joe Paterno, that’s a person that I shared a lot of times with.”
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