Koy Detmer faked major knee injury so Eagles could stash him on IR
The statute of limitations on a stunt Koy Detmer pulled at the request of the Philadelphia Eagles apparently has finally expired, because Koy’s brother, Ty, blew the lid off the secret.
Ty Detmer, who won the 1990 Heisman Trophy, joined Luther Broughton and Micah Warren on “Cheap Shots” Tuesday and revealed that Koy once faked a major knee injury so the Eagles could stash him on injured reserve. Keep in mind that Ty had won the Eagles’ backup job at the time, but the team still wanted to keep Koy.
Broughton, who is a former Eagle, brought up the story, and Ty elaborated. Warren transcribed Ty’s comments on his Off The Record site. Here’s what Ty had to say about the story:
“[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?,’ Detmer said. “And I’m like, ‘well, if they’re going to keep you around, 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 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, 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 it 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.
“And they’re all coming up giving their condolences and everything. And he leaves the training room facility with a big old knee brace on and crutches. Kinda like a guy that’s committing insurance fraud. You get home and you throw the crutches on the ground and walk around and do all your stuff at home without the big brace on.
“That was one of the funniest things I’ve seen because I knew what was coming and knew what was going on and nobody else did at the time except for a couple of the coaches.”
Ty added that back then teams had to be careful about playing tricks with the injury report, so they really had to make the ruse look real. He says Koy had to continue wearing a brace for weeks after the fake event.
Warren says he texted some Philadelphia media members and most did not have knowledge about the scheme, but Deadspin dug up a 1998 Philadelphia Daily News article that seemed to indicate they knew something was amiss:
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.
Koy spent all nine of his NFL seasons with the Eagles, so the move, however unethical it was, seemed to pay off. He showed them loyalty, and they reciprocated.
Helmet smack to Deadspin
