Charlie Whitehurst confirms story of arm wrestling punter for jersey number was joke

Charlie Whitehurst (right) will battle for the Titans' backup quarterback job this summer. (Mark Zaleski/AP)

Last week, the NFL world was captivated when Tennessee Titans quarterback Charlie Whitehurst posted a photo of his new No. 12 jersey on his Instagram account, claiming that he lost the No. 6 that he had worn since his days at Clemson to punter Brett Kern in an arm wrestling contest.

A quarterback losing an arm wrestling match to a punter. It seemed too funny to be true, and it turns out it was.

Kern himself alluded to the notion last week that the entire episode might be a hoax.

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Now we have confirmation that it was indeed not real, as Whitehurst told The Tennessean that he never really thought anyone would take him seriously.

“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. “It was a 30-second thought. I didn’t think anybody took me that serious.”