Koy Dennis Detmer (born July 5, 1973) is a former

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team with ...

quarterback The quarterback (commonly abbreviated "QB"), colloquially known as the "signal caller", is a position in gridiron football. Quarterbacks are members of the offensive platoon and mostly line up directly behind the offensive line. In modern Ame ...

. He was drafted by the

Philadelphia Eagles The Philadelphia Eagles are a professional American football team based in Philadelphia. The Eagles compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) East division. The team plays ...

in the seventh round of the

1997 NFL Draft The 1997 NFL Draft was the procedure by which National Football League teams selected amateur college football players. It is officially known as the NFL Annual Player Selection Meeting. The draft was held April 19–20, 1997, at the Paramount T ...

. He played

college football College football (french: Football universitaire) refers to gridiron football played by teams of student athletes. It was through college football play that American football rules first gained popularity in the United States. Unlike most ...

Colorado Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of t ...

. He is the younger brother of former NFL quarterback

Ty Detmer Ty Hubert Detmer (born October 30, 1967) is an American former professional football player who was a quarterback in the National Football League (NFL). He won the Heisman Trophy in 1990 while playing college football for the BYU Cougars. Detme ...

Early years

Detmer played at

Mission High School Mission High School may refer to: * Mission High School (San Francisco, California), a public high school in the San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD) San Francisco, California * Mission High School (Mission, Texas), a secondary school loc ...

, in

Mission, Texas Mission is a city in Hidalgo County, Texas, United States. Its population was 77,058 at the 2010 census and an estimated 84,331 in 2019. Mission is part of the McAllen–Edinburg–Mission and Reynosa–McAllen metropolitan areas. Geography M ...

. He led the Eagles to the 5A playoffs in 1990 and 1991. The 1990 team lost in the semifinals against eventual state champion Aldine Mustangs (54-21). With Detmer at quarterback, Mission High established a state record with 4,829 passing yards for a season in 1990.

College career

At Colorado, Detmer threw for 5,390 yards. He also set a school record in passing for 40 touchdowns.

Statistics

Professional career

Drafted in the 7th round of the 1997 NFL draft, Detmer spent the next 10 years in

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

. He spent most of his career as a backup to quarterback

Donovan McNabb Donovan Jamal McNabb (born November 25, 1976) is a former American football quarterback who played in the National Football League (NFL) for thirteen seasons, primarily with the Philadelphia Eagles. Before his NFL career, he played football and b ...

and as the place-kick holder for

David Akers David Roy Akers (; born December 9, 1974) is an American former football placekicker who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 16 seasons, primarily with the Philadelphia Eagles. He began his career in 1998 with the Washington Reds ...

. His action as a starter was limited to five games in the 1998 season and one game in the 2002 season, in which McNabb was out with a broken ankle. Detmer played well in that game, going 18 of 26 for 227 yards and three total touchdowns (two passing and one rushing). He dislocated his elbow in the fourth quarter of that game and was replaced by third-string quarterback

A. J. Feeley Adam Joshua Feeley (born May 16, 1977) is a former American football quarterback. He was drafted by the Philadelphia Eagles in the fifth round of the 2001 NFL Draft, and went on to play for the Miami Dolphins, San Diego Chargers, Carolina Pan ...

. Detmer healed enough to play in the final games of 2002, but head coach

Andy Reid Andrew Walter Reid (born March 19, 1958) is an American football coach who is the head coach for the Kansas City Chiefs of the National Football League (NFL). Reid was previously head coach of the Philadelphia Eagles from 1999 to 2012. From 200 ...

decided to stay with Feeley, who was having success. He also saw sporadic playing time in the 2004 and 2005 seasons. Prior to the 2006 season, Detmer was released after the Eagles brought back A. J. Feeley and signed former Pro Bowl quarterback

Jeff Garcia Jeffrey Jason Garcia (born February 24, 1970) is a former American football quarterback. After attending high school and junior college in Gilroy, California, Garcia played college football at San Jose State University. A four-time CFL All-St ...

as the backups. He was re-signed on January 2, 2007 by the Eagles to provide a third quarterback for the team's playoff push, with Donovan McNabb out with injury. He was also re-signed to be the kick holder for the Eagles. Detmer had his NFL career extended for a few days by signing with the

Minnesota Vikings The Minnesota Vikings are a professional American football team based in Minneapolis. They compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the National Football Conference (NFC) North division. Founded in 1960 as an expansion ...

on November 6, 2007. The Vikings needed a second quarterback behind

Brooks Bollinger Brooks Michael Bollinger (born November 15, 1979) is a former American football quarterback in the National Football League (NFL) for the New York Jets, Minnesota Vikings, Dallas Cowboys and Detroit Lions. He also was a member of the Florida Tusk ...

while

Tarvaris Jackson Tarvaris D'Andre Jackson (April 21, 1983 – April 12, 2020) was an American football quarterback in the National Football League (NFL). Jackson played college football for both Alabama State and Arkansas. He played professionally for the ...

and

Kelly Holcomb Bryan Kelly Holcomb (born July 9, 1973) is a former American football quarterback of the National Football League. He was signed by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers as an undrafted free agent in 1995. He played college football at Middle Tennessee State ...

recovered from injuries. Detmer was reunited with Vikings head coach

Brad Childress Bradley Childress (born June 27, 1956) is a former American football coach. He worked for over 40 years as a coach for various college programs and National Football League (NFL) franchises. He was the offensive coordinator for Wisconsin from 19 ...

, who had been with the Eagles as the offensive coordinator. Detmer's stint with the Vikings was his first professional experience not in an Eagle uniform. The Vikings released Detmer on November 10, 2007, once Holcomb had recovered sufficiently to play. In 103 NFL games, Detmer has a career passer rating of 61.2 with ten career touchdowns and 14 interceptions thrown. Despite poor passing numbers, Detmer managed to have an 11-year career due to his ability to hold for place-kicks; then-Eagles special teams coach

John Harbaugh John William Harbaugh (born September 23, 1962) is an American football coach who is the head coach of the Baltimore Ravens of the National Football League (NFL). Previously, he coached the defensive backs for the Philadelphia Eagles and served ...

and Pro Bowl kicker

both spoke highly of Detmer's talent and skill in this area.

NFL career statistics

Personal life

Detmer is a coach on the Somerset High School (Somerset, Texas) staff under his father, head coach Hubert "Sonny" Detmer. He also coached his son, Koy Detmer Jr., at Somerset. His son committed to Ty's alma mater,

Brigham Young University Brigham Young University (BYU, sometimes referred to colloquially as The Y) is a private research university in Provo, Utah. It was founded in 1875 by religious leader Brigham Young and is sponsored by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day ...

, as a walk-on quarterback for the 2015 season. Mission CISD named Koy Detmer the Mission High School football coach at a board meeting on February 1, 2016. He is married to Monica Miller Detmer, who is a teacher and high school girls' basketball coach in Mission.

In popular culture

The speculative fiction work ''

17776 ''17776'' (also known as ''What Football Will Look Like in the Future'') is a serialized speculative fiction multimedia narrative by Jon Bois, published online through '' SB Nation''. Set in the distant future in which all humans have become i ...

'' mentions a scavenger hunt played in the far future in which players try to find every football autographed by Detmer. It assumes that Detmer signed a total of 43 footballs throughout his career, poking fun that it would be far fewer than his brother, Ty.

References

External links

Koy Detmer
at NFL.com *
Philadelphia Eagles bio (archived from 2007)

What football will look like in the future
- fiction story involving footballs signed by Detmer {{DEFAULTSORT:Detmer, Koy 1973 births Living people American football quarterbacks Players of American football from San Antonio Colorado Buffaloes football players Philadelphia Eagles players People from Mission, Texas