Paterno Lawyer: Penn State Money Not Settlement

The lawyer for Joe Paterno’s family says that the university’s payment of millions under the former coach’s employment contract wasn’t a settlement and that the family declined a request for a full release.

Wick Sollers issued a statement Thursday after the school disclosed it had provided the estate with more than $5.5 million in money and benefits to finalize the payments due under the contract.

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Sollers said the university asked the family for a full release in return for the payments. But “that request was declined, and no release was signed.”

The payments and benefits include a $3 million career bonus and his family’s use of a Beaver Stadium suite for 25 years.

Paterno died at age 85 in January from lung cancer.

(Copyright 2012 by The Associated Press.  All Rights Reserved.)