More than two months since he was fired as head football coach at Penn State – a position he held for 61 years – Joe Paterno spoke about his dismissal and the Jerry Sandusky child sex abuse case for the first time.

In an interview with the Washington Post, the 85-year-old Paterno said, in hindsight, he wished he would have done more to stop Sandusky.

“I didn’t know exactly how to handle it and I was afraid to do something that might jeopardize what the university procedure was,” he told the Post. “So I backed away and turned it over to some other people, people I thought would have a little more expertise than I did. It didn’t work out that way.”

Sandusky is charged with more than 50 counts of sexually abusing young boys during a 15-year period.

Paterno said to the Post he couldn’t recall the last time he had seen or talked to Sandusky. He said that, even while coaching together, his relationship with Sandusky was “professional, not social.”

As to how Sandusky managed to continue allegedly assaulting young boys, Paterno doesn’t have an answer.

“I wish I knew,” Paterno said in the interview. “I don’t know the answer to that. It’s hard.”

Paterno didn’t comment much on his feelings about his dismissal. His responsibilities as head coach were terminated via a phone call on Nov. 9, four days after Sandusky had been arrested.

The former coach touched on the fact that people may have placed a higher level of responsibility on his shoulders because of his prominence compared to other Penn State officials.

“Whether it’s fair I don’t know, but they do it,” Paterno told the Post. “You would think I ran the show here.”

Paterno turned 85 on Dec. 21, and he is battling lung cancer. He’s begun undergoing chemotherapy and was back in the hospital on Friday due to minor complications with the treatment.

He told the Post he was sent a letter of retirement from the university on Jan. 2. Until then, Paterno was still considered a tenured professor.

“Right now I’m trying to figure out what I’m gonna do,” he said in the interview. “Cause I don’t want to sit around on my backside all day.”

Still, Paterno said he’s less worried about his own well-being and hopes people will show support for the victims instead.

“You know, I’m not as concerned about me,” he told the Post. “What’s happened to me has been great. I got five great kids. Seventeen great grandchildren. I’ve had a wonderful experience here at Penn State. I don’t want to walk away from this thing bitter. I want to be helpful.”