Jerry Sandusky says he is innocent of the charges against him.

Joe Paterno’s one-time defensive coordinator was charged earlier this month with 40 criminal counts accusing him of sexual abuse of minors. He is currently free on a $100,000 bond and has denied any wrongdoing. The allegations date back to 1994, according to the grand jury report filed November 5 in Pennsylvania state court. The report detailed claims of alleged sexual encounters with as many as eight boys in Sandusky’s home, hotels and Penn State locker rooms.

“I could say that I have done some of those things. I have horsed around with kids. I have showered after workouts. I have hugged them and I have touched their legs without intent of sexual contact,” said Sandusky.

When asked by Costas to concede any wrongdoing, Sandusky said, “I shouldn’t have showered with those kids.”

Gee, ya think?

Look, I’ll make it simple: Grown men do not take showers with boys unless both are fully clothed, and even then. Period. That’s not “horsing around,” it’s bordering on pedophilia, and making excuses for it only makes it worse. Mr. Sandusky is innocent until proven guilty, but he’s not helping himself with this kind of talk.

Oh, and thanks for nothing for once again providing the Morality Patrol with another poster-boy, so to speak, for their inevitable execrable linking of being gay with pedophilia. Even if Mr. Sandusky claims to be straight, he’s feeding the hysterical myth that gays have to recruit unsuspecting kids to join the ranks. For that Mr. Sandusky can do to himself what he’s accused of doing to those boys, preferably with a garden rake.