There's no slither in this Snake

Jake Plummer is a former Pro Bowl quarterback for the Denver Broncos with personal and family roots in North Idaho, but that’s not why we’re writing this editorial.

Plummer started a handball tournament at Peak Health and Wellness fitness center in Coeur d’Alene in 2008, and while that’s part of the reason we’re writing this editorial, it’s not the whole reason. Sometimes when you come across great people — industrious, conscientious and humble — you just have to write about them.

Jake the Snake, as he was known in his QB-playing days, led Arizona State University to an undefeated regular season in 1996 and to the Rose Bowl. The Sun Devils lost that game 20-17 to Ohio State, depriving them of a likely national championship. But Plummer parlayed his extraordinary leadership and athletic abilities into a solid 10-year NFL career and popularity that endures today.

While at ASU and his first NFL team, the Arizona Cardinals, Plummer became close friends with Pat Tillman, who gave up his own NFL career and, ultimately, his life, to fight for his country as an Army Ranger. (Good book alert: Read Jon Krakauer’s “Where Men Win Glory.”) Here’s a glimpse of the Inner Snake: In honor of his deceased friend, Plummer the Broncos’ new quarterback wore a full beard and long hair, replicating the look of his former Cardinals teammate. Loyalty is in Jake’s DNA.

What Jake Plummer isn’t is a fake. He’s not a choir boy but he treats others as he would like to be treated. That’s in the NFL rule book or something, isn’t it?

This handball obsession might be a bit hard to explain, seeing as how Plummer was going strong in his NFL career when he gave it up to pursue the somewhat less lucrative pastime of slapping a bouncing ball in a pungent four-walled room. That’s just Jake, who’s been using handball as an excuse for some time now to elevate the sport and, more importantly, raise significant money for local charities.

But what’s most striking about Jake is his code of sports ethics, which transcends the games themselves. He’s been known to admonish even his Sun Devil brethren when they speak disrespectfully about a loathed opponent who excels. “Hell,” Jake might say, “I’d love to play on the same team as that guy. He’s a baller!”

As Jake hosts and competes in his handball tournament today through Sunday at Peak on Ironwood Drive, we salute him for building stronger bodies and stronger communities. We’d love to play on his team anytime.