In an exclusive interview with the Centre Daily Times and WJAC-TV, Jay Paterno vehemently defended his father, and announced that he was writing a book about Joe Paterno’s relationship with his family, football players, and the Penn State community.

It was another leg of the Paterno family media tour, which has included stops with Katie Couric and the release of a report that exonerates Paterno.

“It’s a big leap from a guy that maybe could have done a little bit more — which by his own admission he wishes he had done more — to saying that he was involved willfully in a cover-up, had callous disregard for children, and was worried about bad publicity and protected the football program over the welfare of children,” Paterno said in the interview.

A key component of Paterno’s potential negligence is his knowledge of a 1998 incident in which Sandusky was initially accused of abuse, but never charged after a police investigation. Jay Paterno says his father told him he did not know about that 1998 incident.

“He told me he didn’t know,” Paterno said in the interview. “He’s not a guy who ever lied to me. I believe he didn’t know.”

“Obviously, for the idea of a conspiracy in a cover up, you don’t tell anybody outside your university, and they did. They went to The Second Mile,” Paterno said. “This conspiracy of silence doesn’t stand up to facts.”

Jay Paterno is scheduled to speak at THON shortly after noon on Saturday.