Denial Is A River: What Were Joe Amendola & Jerry Sandusky Thinking?

It's hard to imagine alleged Penn State child molester Jerry Sandusky as the victim of anything except perhaps a mental illness. Today, he is clearly the victim of some bad legal and communications advice.

Sandusky and his attorney, Joe Amendola, last night gave an exclusive interview to NBC’s Rock Center with Brian Williams. Sandusky needed to do something to anchor himself against a rushing river of bad facts and anger, but today he is further downstream.

Sandusky acknowledged showering with young boys and touching their legs. He said he “horsed around." He said he "enjoys" young people but denied being a pedophile. Amendola said he expects several alleged shower victims to deny that his client assaulted them, telling CNN: “Jerry Sandusky is a big, overgrown kid. He’s a jock. The bottom line is jocks do that. They kid around. They horse around."

It's doubtful that many 67-year-old “jocks” will verify that touching young boys on their thighs in the shower as commonplace. Not only do most reasonable men and women find Sandusky’s admissions disturbing, but even the conduct he acknowledged might constitute a criminal misdemeanor.

Sandusky and Amendola had hoped their media appearance would work to give the jury pool another side of the story, portraying the hulking former linebacker somewhat sympathetically and offering hints at a credible explanation for the disgusting accusations against him.

It didn’t work. The decision was an incredible miscalculation. The weight of the allegations is massive. The intensity of the media scrutiny is white hot. There are shoes left to drop, including more alleged victims coming forward to authorities.