Joe Paterno Wants You To Speak Up, Sonny

Paterno called into a Tampa radio station from his Jitterbug. It did not go well.

Paterno — and the random people around him he tried to put on the phone during a live interview — made for an entertaining couple of minutes.

"You've gotta speak up, there's a lot of people around here."

Host: What I was saying was you sat in my living room recruiting my brother a long time ago.

"I can't hear a word you're saying. Hang on just a second." To someone nearby: "Hey, see if you can get it, I can't."

Nearby person: "Are you there?"

Host: I'm here.

Nearby person: "OK, is there any way you could speak up?"

Host: I'm screaming into the microphone as it is now and he's live on the air, so I'm yelling at the top of my lungs. I don't know if the noise is too much there that he can't hear me?

Nearby person: "No, we're in a pretty quiet area. Do you want to try again?"

(Host, screaming): I can hear you great and I don't know, can you hear me?

Paterno: "Talk up."

Host: I'm screaming at the top of my lungs. I can't talk any louder than this

"I'll tell you, I'm having trouble hearing you."

We could give JoePa the benefit of the doubt and assume he had a bad cell signal. But he's been known to pull the same "I can't hear you" bit when the AD suggests it might be time to hang it up.

If Joe Paterno Can't Hear Someone on the Other End of the Phone, What Exactly Can He Hear? [Sports Radio Interviews]