Players join new teams every offseason and their arrivals often lead to stories about deals being struck to get preferred uniform numbers from new teammates.
Such deals usually include a cash payment or charitable donation in exchange for switching digits, but it appeared there was a new approach in Tennessee this offseason when quarterback Charlie Whitehurst posted on Instagram that he lost an arm wrestling match to punter Brett Kern over the No. 6 that Whitehurst wore in San Diego and Kern has been wearing in Tennessee.
A short time later, Kern intimated that there never was an arm wrestling match and Whitehurst confirmed on Monday that the entire things was a figment of his imagination.
“It all happened so fast. I don’t remember what motivated me to do it, but I think it was kind of like, ‘Hey, this looks pretty good,’” Whitehurst said, via the Tennessean. “It was a 30-second thought. I didn’t think anybody took me that serious.”
Whitehurst said that he asked Kern how tied he was to No. 6 when he signed with the Titans and that he thinks he would have beaten Kern, but that it would have been “fairly irresponsible” for a quarterback to engage in an arm wrestling bout. Whitehurst will wear No. 12 this season and we’ll all just have to continue to wonder what would happen if he and Kern decided to film a sequel to Over the Top.