Ty Detmer Says Koy Detmer Faked An Injury So Philly Could Put Him On IR

Remember Ty and Koy Detmer, the quarterback brothers? Ty bounced around as a backup, while Koy largely hung on with the Eagles, also mostly as a backup. In 1997, when Koy was a rookie, the brothers were on the same Philly squad. As training camp wound down, the team needed to trim the roster, but wanted to keep Koy. So, according to Ty, the Eagles asked Koy to pretend to get hurt so they could stash him on injured reserve.

Ty told the story in a radio interview with Cheap Shots. As transcribed by Off the Record:

[Koy] came up to me like a couple days before that day and was like 'hey, they want me to go on injured reserve so they can keep me around, what do you think?,' And I'm like, 'well, if they're going to keep you around, you know I wouldn't not do it.' So that day before practice he comes up and he's like 'okay, today's the day they told me.'

So, we're kind of in team period at the end of practice and they're like 'alright, Koy, you're in!' And so, he kind of goes in, runs a play, runs another play and then he looks at me and gives me this wink as he's stepping in to call the play. And so I'm like, trying not to laugh cause I'm like, how is this gonna go down, you know? It's a running play. He hands off and and as he's coming out after the hand off to carry out his bootleg fake, he goes down and rolls around and grabs his knee.

And oh man, you know, the whole practice kinda stops like, 'what happened?' And guys were coming up to me and, 'oh man is this the same knee he hurt at Colorado?' And I'm like 'yeah I think so I don't know, maybe he just you know twisted a little or something.' So they end up bringing the cart out and they cart him off the field.

So, practice ends and I go into the training room you know, and there he is laying on the training room table with a towel over his face and I just kind of raised the corner up and peeked and he's got this big old grin on his face. You know like 'how was that for my acting job?' I had to get out of there because I was about to just die laughing. And the rest of the team, you can't say anything because nobody is supposed to know.

Koy's history made it plausible; he had torn his right ACL in 1995 while playing for the Colorado Buffaloes. But it sounds like reporters knew something was up. From a Philadelphia Daily News about Koy, dated Oct. 5, 1998:

Detmer starred at Colorado in nearby Boulder before the Eagles drafted him in the seventh round in 1997. He spent last year on injured reserve when he mysteriously aggravated a two-year-old knee injury.

You can listen to the interview here. Start at the 21:35 mark; former Eagles tight end Luther Broughton, one of the show hosts, also confirmed the story.

[ Off the Record]

Photo: AP