THE FRONT ROW with Mark Nelke Feb. 2, 2014

Jake Plummer played quarterback during a time when coaches called the plays and the players ran them, with few exceptions.

"We had an audible system, but he's taken it to a whole 'nother level," Plummer said.

"He" being Peyton Manning, the Denver Broncos quarterback who gestures and blurts out all sorts of things at the line of scrimmage prior to the play - the type of pre-snap histrionics that turned "Omaha!" into a nationwide catch phrase.

And something the Seattle Seahawks will have to deal with today in the Super Bowl.

"It's kind of been him, going up there with not just a run and a pass, but actually two run plays or two pass plays that they could get to," said Plummer, the former Capital High, Arizona State and NFL quarterback, who following retirement lived briefly in Sandpoint before moving to Boulder, Colo., about a year and a half ago.

"He was a professor, and I was a student of the game," Plummer added. "He's such a smart, smart guy, and he knows it in such depth, that he can get up there, and he's like a Rolodex, he goes through the looks that he sees, dials up the right play and calls it. And most times, he's so efficient, it rarely ever goes wrong, and that's the hard part about trying to beat him."

WHEN PLUMMER was with the Denver Broncos, their season came to an end in the playoffs at the hands of Manning in 2003 and '04.

"He just dismantled our defense, we just couldn't stop him ... whatever we called, he had an answer for it. In a way, that's what (then-Denver coach Mike) Shanahan wanted me to do. And I couldn't; it was too much in my head, too many things in my head already to go through.

"That's why what he (Manning) does is so amazing to me, his ability to know everything about the defense, offense, and what call to get to in 25 seconds," said Plummer, a scrambler and an improviser in his day. "I was just more or less trying to get the play called correctly and remember the cadence, and know my reads, and my checkdown."

Denver tried to do that, but quickly found it wasn't as easy as Manning made it look.

"Once Peyton out-masterminded the mastermind two years in a row in the playoffs, I think that's what Shanahan was looking to get - a quarterback that could do what Peyton did," Plummer said last week, before heading back to New York/New Jersey to take part in some NFL-related festivities, then to take in the game.

Living in the Denver area, Plummer has been to a few Broncos games the last couple years. He's chatted with Manning a few times, "but we don't talk Xs and Os. I'm not an Xs and Os kind of guy," Plummer said. "But that's the beauty of the game. There's different styles, and they all work. But I think there's a trickle-down from what he's doing, and kids that are 15 now are called upon to know more than they probably should at that age.

"I'm an optimist; I thought every play (the coaches called) was going to work."

PLUMMER SAID he'll be pulling for the Broncos ... unless he ends up rooting for the Seahawks.

"I'd like to see Peyton get a ring," he said. "I'd like to see Champ Bailey get a ring. I think it would be pretty phenomenal with what John Elway's done, winning two rings there, then taking over the reins ... and to win another ring.

"Then again, I love Russell Wilson. I like Pete Carroll's style, and I like Seattle's swagger. If they're down in the fourth quarter, I'll probably be excited to see them make a game of it. I want to see a close game."

Though he's some three inches taller, at 6-2, Plummer said he can relate to what Wilson is going through, and was happy to see him get a chance, rather than sit and watch someone taller merely because they were "prototypical."

"He's got a phenomenal ability to extend plays," Plummer said. "I think that was one of my traits that helped me on early in my career. But this kid takes it to a whole 'nother level. I love his game - all of it. He's an undersized guy that wasn't allowed to make it in the NFL. Now look - everyone's looking for the next Russell Wilson ... I think he's the X factor in the whole game."

AND AS for a certain star cornerback who didn't mind telling you how good he is, Plummer said if you can back up the talk, you can say what you want ...

... Just like Deion Sanders, who played in Plummer's day.

"He talked, and if you talk the talk you better walk the walk," said Plummer, who last fall spent weekends in San Francisco as a football studio analyst on the Pac-12 Networks. "And (Richard) Sherman has been walking it, and made the biggest play of his life. The fact that he attacked a player might have upset a player, and maybe riled some other players ... but there was some bad blood there, and we don't know the extent of it, and at the height of the biggest moment of his career so far, he let it out."

"He (Sherman) is obviously a very thoughtful person, who's well educated and knows what he's doing," Plummer said. "I don't think he's out there spouting off unless he knows he can back it up. People that call him a thug don't even know what a thug is. We should applaud him, because he said what he felt. He didn't sugar-coat it."

Back when Deion played, "not every post-game interview was broadcast around the world and tweeted upon," Plummer said. "There were some things that I'm sure were said that some people never heard. Nowadays, everything that's said gets heard."

As for Sherman?

"I'd take a Richard Sherman in a second to be on my team," Plummer said.

Mark Nelke is sports editor of The Press. He can be reached at 664-8176, Ext. 2019, or via email at mnelke@cdapress.com. Follow him on Twitter at CdAPressSports.