Joe Paterno: I’m a Cheerleader

Joe Paterno has said some pretty funny things in his day, but I’m not sure anything is funnier than what he said on Tuesday. As The Wiz of Odds pointed out to us, Paterno downplayed his role in the Penn State offense during his weekly press conference.

“I don’t do much play calling anymore,” Paterno said. “I’m a cheerleader.

Just to be clear, JoePa was not joking. Oftentimes you read something and you’re unsure of the context. We found video of Paterno answering the question, and he said it with a straight face. Nobody laughed, either:

And that is why, despite being so senile that he has difficult with radio interviews, JoePa remains one of our favorite coaches. I mean there is very little that can compare to that, or when Paterno went all Godfather on reporters, or when he lashed out on one looking for a local angle to a story. The guy is the best.

But sure enough, he wasn’t lying when he said he was a cheerleader. In fact, LBS went digging around the internet and found these pictures to confirm it:

Many thanks to my man Eric Reinhold of Fan Phooey for the stellar Photoshop work.