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NOW calls for Penn State's Joe Paterno to resign after comments he made before the Orange Bowl.
Women's rights advocates who say Joe Paterno made outrageous remarks about an alleged sexual assault want the Penn State football coach to resign.
Joanne Tosti-Vasey, president of the National Organization for Women in Pennsylvania, said Paterno's comments last week represent an institutional insensitivity that endangers women. She issued a news release late Friday calling for Paterno's resignation.
"When someone of his stature makes light of sexual assault, we have a serious problem," Tosti-Vasey said. "It sends a message that this behavior is not serious ... that sexual assault or rape or violence against women is acceptable for an athlete."
The coach's remarks came a day before the Orange Bowl, when a reporter asked a question related to Florida State linebacker A.J. Nicholson. Nicholson was accused of sexual assault and sent home before Tuesday's game.
Paterno replied by talking about past suspensions of Penn State players, according to an official transcript from the Orange Bowl.
He then added: "There's some tough - there's so many people gravitating to these kids. He may not have even known what he was getting into, Nicholson. They knock on the door; somebody may knock on the door; a cute girl knocks on the door. What do you do?"
"Geez. I hope - thank God they don't knock on my door because I'd refer them to a couple of other rooms," Paterno continued. "But that's too bad. You hate to see that. I really do. You like to see a kid end up his football career. He's a heck of a football player, by the way; he's a really good football player. And it's just too bad."
A spokeswoman at the NOW headquarters in Washington said the organization's president, Kim Gandy, supports the call for Paterno's resignation.
Guido D'Elia, communications director for Penn State football, said Paterno made his remarks in the larger context of distractions in the bowl-game environment. Nor, he said, did Paterno intend to make light of the assault allegations.
"I think if you were present, you understood he meant no malice," D'Elia said Saturday. "If you heard his tone, he really thought it was too bad for everybody. He was concerned for everybody."
No charges have been filed against Nicholson, although police in Florida said the matter remains open.
Tosti-Vasey said Paterno's comments are the latest in a series of insensitive actions by the university's athletic department. The Pennsylvania NOW branch flayed Paterno, Curley and Spanier in 2003 after a football player accused of sexual assault was allowed to play in a bowl game.
Source: AP