Brett Favre Said He Had To Ask Ty Detmer What A Nickel Defense Was; He Was Joking, Right?

I sent the following video to 11 of my most trusted SportsBudz to make sure I wasn’t going crazy. To me, this looks for all the world like Brett Favre telling a story about the time he played a long practical joke on Ty Detmer by pretending not to know what a nickel defense was. Most (but not all) agreed with me.

But then I saw that, to a few respected TwitterBudz, this was not that at all the case. Instead, this was Brett Favre admitting to the world that he had to ask Ty Detmer what the coach meant when he kept saying “nickel defense” all the time, and that Ty Detmer thought it was a joke at first, but quickly learned it wasn’t, and went ahead and filled in the future Hall of Fame quarterback not only on the nickel defense, but about how on a “dime” defense there are two extra defensive backs and two fewer linebackers.

These are people whose opinions I value as well. I mean, Ed Werder knows Brett Favre. He’d have a better sense for this than I would. But I don’t know. That all seems a little too “George Washington couldn’t lie about chopping down the cherry tree” to me.

[FOUL LANGUAGE WARNING]

It’s too convenient in its “he’s just a big ol’ kid out there” mythology. Plus — and I could maybe be persuaded otherwise on this — Favre in that video comes off as a guy who’s proud of a prank he once pulled. On the other hand, maybe what he’s proud of is that he made the Pro Football Hall of Fame without knowing the first thing about football.

I’ve reached out to BYU, where Detmer is the offensive coordinator. Hopefully he’ll be able to help clear up this important matter.

In the meantime, what do you think?