“Due to multiple threats made against Assistant Coach Mike McQueary, the University has decided it would be in the best interest of all for Assistant Coach McQueary not to be in attendance at Saturday’s Nebraska game.”

“Penn State University students were warned by local police not to take to the streets on Saturday at the football team’s final home game to protest the sacking of legendary coach Joe Paterno amid a sexual abuse scandal.

“State College Police Department Captain John Gardner said he plans to have every officer working at the game against Nebraska, where some fear students may protest the ouster of Paterno after 46 years in charge of the team.

“‘It you truly support Coach Joe or Penn State, this is not the way,’ Gardner told a news conference. ‘Stay off the street. The behavior of last night will not be tolerated.'”

“Multiple sources connected with the Penn State football team tell TMZ … coaches held a meeting with players today and told them their friends and family should show support for ousted coach Joe Paterno by wearing white to the game on Saturday.

“It’s a bold move, considering there is a university-wide move for people in the stands to wear baby blue to support the alleged sexual assault victims of Jerry Sandusky.”

“Joe Paterno has hired a prominent Washington criminal defense lawyer to represent him in the Penn State sex abuse case, a source close to the case told NBC News…

“A source close to Paterno said that in addition to the investigations by the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s Office, the former coach is concerned about the likelihood of civil lawsuits by Sandusky’s alleged victims and their families.”

“Pennsylvania’s attorney general has voiced ‘concern’ over Penn State University’s firing of legendary football coach Joe Paterno and the treatment of other witnesses and officials involved in a child sexual abuse case.

“Nils Hagen-Frederiksen, a spokesman for the Pennsylvania attorney general’s office, noted that the two officials charged with perjury and failure to report the abuse are being defended by the university, while Paterno was fired.

“‘We have a cooperating witness [Paterno], an individual who testified, provided truthful testimony,’ Hagen-Frederiksen told ABCNews.com, ‘but two others who were found by a grand jury to commit perjury whose legal expenses are being paid for university. One is on administrative leave. Very interesting development.'”

“Darren Rovell of CNBC spoke with a “legal insider” who estimated that Penn State’s liability in the civil lawsuits will be “easily $100 million.”

“Another estimate, made by an attorney on the ‘Happy Hour with JP Peterson’ show on 1010 Sports also estimated the cost of civil lawsuits to be at least $100 million, and could reach $250 million.”

“It is conceivable that the process could lead the trustees to consider a total shutdown of the football program as the best way to excise all that is wrong…

“Despite the astonishing revelations of the past several days, it will not be easy for the trustees to do what they must do. They will face Paterno’s legions of fans and his significant influence metastasized through the university, based both on his decades of success and his generosity to the university community. It is difficult to estimate the extent of the role Paterno’s image and presence will have on the effort to change the athletic department culture…

“Consider the cancellation of the football program for a period of at least two years. It might not be possible to establish a new culture without the total elimination of the old one. A two-year hiatus might be the only way to eliminate a systemic problem. How important is football to an institution of higher learning that serves 95,000 students and is supposed to be dedicated to the pursuit of excellence? When Tulane University was caught in a basketball point-shaving scandal in the mid-1980s, the university leadership eliminated the sport for several years to allow a complete renewal of values. When the U.S. Congress discovered a series of abuses in 2008 in its page program, which was designed to offer opportunities to young people, the members of Congress agreed to eliminate it altogether.”

Via Mediaite.