In three weeks, Ty Detmer has gone from unknown to infamous to famous. He knows there are more transformations ahead.
"I used to go into places, and nobody knew who I was, and they were talking about me, and I was standing right there - and it wasn't good, either," Detmer said."Now, you go into the grocery store, and the workers are all coming up to meet you. It just goes to show, it's a week-by-week thing."
After four years of being a backup, Detmer is enjoying his 2-0 record as a starting quarterback, but he realizes the good will that came with his four-touchdown performance against Miami last week will be gone by Sunday, when the Philadelphia Eagles play host to the Carolina Panthers.
"That was only one game," he said. "You come in the next day and start working again."
Detmer's calm, commanding performance against Miami - 18-of-24 for 226 yards - came as a surprise to most Eagles fans, who expected the worst after Rodney Peete went down with a season-ending knee injury Sept. 30.
It didn't surprise coach Ray Rhodes, who saw enough of Detmer when he was the backup in Green Bay and Rhodes was the Packers' defensive coordinator.
"He's been a quarterback since he was 6 years old," Rhodes said. "He understands the position. A whole lot of people who play the position don't thoroughly understand it."
Actually, Detmer said, he first started playing quarterback when he was 7 years old.
Football runs in the family. His father Sonny was his coach at Southwest High School in San Antonio. His brother Koy is having an outstanding season quarterbacking the University of Colorado.
"I was never the biggest guy," said Detmer, listed as 6-foot, 194 pounds, "so I took the seventh grade twice to catch up physically. I had to go to a private school because I hadn't failed."
That repeat year in seventh grade was the only time Detmer wasn't the quarterback. "I played middle linebacker, so I guess I was bigger in the private school."
Detmer quickly switched back to quarterback and had an impressive high school career that ended with a scholarship to Brigham Young.
After redshirting there as a freshman, Detmer took over the pass-happy BYU offense and had one of the greatest single seasons ever by a college quarterback in his junior year in 1990.
In winning the two major awards given each year to the country's top college football player, the Heisman and Maxwell trophies, Detmer completed 361 of 562 passes for 5,188 yards and 41 touchdowns.
His numbers as a senior weren't as spectacular, but when his college career was over, Detmer had 59 NCAA records, including completions, attempts, passing yards and touchdown passes.
Then Detmer sat on draft day 1992 and watched as 16 quarterbacks were taken in front of him. The Packers finally picked him on the ninth round, the 230th overall selection.
Green Bay had just traded for Brett Favre, who quickly assumed the starting job. Realizing he wasn't going to get a shot with the Packers as long as Favre was around, Detmer waited for his contract to end and, this past offseason, signed with the Eagles as a free agent.
"You can't really look back," he said. "I feel like God's got a plan for all of us and he's waited for the right time, the right opportunity for me. And my job is to go out and make the most of it."