Rolling the dice and living with the results

The retired NFL quarterback marvelled last weekend as he watched on TV as Aaron Rodgers led an improbable last-minute drive that put the Green Bay Packers in the NFC Championship game today.

“He’s fearless,” Jake Plummer said of Rodgers. “There’s something to be said about a guy who’ll pull a trigger, and man up to what the results are. I think a lot of today’s quarterbacks, there’s just a handful that you can let rip it, no matter what, and Aaron Rodgers is one of them.”

Plummer, who lives in Colorado but also owns a home just south of Coeur d’Alene, is in town this weekend for his eighth annual Plummer Family Helluva Handball Bash at Peak Health and Wellness in Coeur d’Alene. Living in Colorado, the former Denver Bronco has seen a lot this year of Trevor Siemien, who succeeded the retired Peyton Manning as Denver’s QB.

Plummer praised Siemien’s many qualities, but also noted there were times he would throw the ball away, rather than take a chance.

“Yeah, it might get picked, but that’s the game,” Plummer said. “They’re the best defenders in the world, they’re going to beat you sometimes. But Rodgers just seems to have that, ‘I don’t care, I’m going to pull the trigger, you’re going to pay for it.’ It’s a mindset and obviously a skill set. He’s got the quickest release I’ve ever seen; a strong, strong arm. It definitely helps to have a rifle like he has, because those shots you take into those small windows, they get there with the arm strength he has, and some guys don’t have that skill set. He’s a different character.”

PLUMMER, WHO played 10 seasons in the NFL, was known to take a few chances — much to the angst of his head coaches at times. But there’s a reason he was nicknamed “Jake the Snake.”

“It was a competitive drive, and a desire, and when you’re in that moment ... ” Jake said. “Me, I never heard the coach saying, ‘be careful with the ball. Throw it away. Don’t force it.’ I’d be getting chased, and make a guy miss and see someone open, and it would be an instantaneous reaction. The trigger gets pulled. Just like in real life — when you pull that trigger, you can’t take that bullet back. You live with the results.”

The Snake’s results — 29,253 yards, 161 touchdown passes and 161 interceptions.

Plummer laughed when asked how his coaches dealt with him taking chances on the football field.

“There were coaches constantly trying to program me to be that robot,” he said.

He mentioned the recent NFL ticket exchange TV commercial, where NFL coaches past and present go “undercover” as fans try to purchase tickets on the street, instead of through the NFL’s secure website.

Mike Shanahan, who coached Plummer in Denver from 2003-06, was one of the coaches in the commercial.

“He’s in a disguise and he takes that disguise off and says, ‘Really?’,” Jake remembered. “I heard that plenty of times in my life, when I was just trying to make a play. ‘What were you thinking?’ is what he says on the commercial. I was just trying to make a play, coach — that’s what I would always tell him. And that would piss him off even more. But that’s all I ever was doing, just trying to make a play. I wasn’t trying to throw a pick, I wasn’t trying to put our team behind the 8-ball ...

“So I always thought it was funny ... ‘What were you thinking?’ Someone who didn’t compete at that level would ask that kind of question. Someone who had competed at that level would not ask that question. ... That was my nature, that’s how I played, and I got away with it for 10 years.”

IN A way, Plummer likened the Dallas quarterback situation to New England, where Drew Bledsoe got injured, Tom Brady replaced him, and the rest is history.

In Dallas, Dak Prescott replaced the injured Tony Romo and had a superb rookie season.

“I remember coming in Year 1 as a rook and making a ton of plays,” Plummer recalled, “and Year 2, still kind of the mystery guy, and once teams figure out your skill set then can gameplan you a little better. So for him, it will be whether he adapts to that, and keeps growing as a quarterback.”

Plummer said if he was Dallas, he would keep Prescott and look to deal Romo.

“Romo’s still got some years in his career,” Plummer said, “but me, I wouldn’t take Romo because he gets injured a lot. Nothing worse than paying a quarterback $4 million to hold a clipboard and be a good life coach on the sideline. ... I would stay far away from Romo, but somebody will take him, because there’s not a lot of great signal callers out there that have done it like he’s done it. ... what if he’s like Peyton Manning, and he’s got three more good years left in him?”

So would he be a good fit in Denver, where Manning came in and won a Super Bowl before retiring?

“I think you roll with Siemien. ... and let Paxton (Lynch) keep getting better,” Plummer said.

A COUPLE of years ago, a hemp lab in Colorado Springs reached out to some former players, offering an alternative method to dealing with the natural aches and pains accrued during an NFL career.

Plummer, who lives a mile or two from the lab, was one of those players.

“I’ve been using the (Charlotte’s Web) oils for a couple years,” he said. “It’s helped me in a lot of ways. The headaches I used to have every once in a while, the swollen joints, my wrist, or ankle, or knees would just hurt some days. ... whether I worked out or not. Those days are gone. I still get sore, and some injuries that aren’t going to heal just by taking oils, but I definitely feel a lot better. And I don’t have to take Advil, I don’t have to take any prescription meds. ... I attribute a lot of that to the oils.”

So much so that he’s become an advocate for the oils, and how they can help other players with similar aches and pains — even those who may be suffering from CTE, a progressively degenerative disease of the brain.

“I’m more been advocating for the hemp oils and the cannabinoids that are contained in hemp, which is not marijuana, (it’s) a cousin of marijuana,” Plummer said. “There is no high involved, the oils have been used on kids with seizures in Colorado Springs. ... there’s a use for it to help protect the brain internally. People know the ability of this, it’s just a matter of changing the perception.

“I’m more advocating for hemp — it doesn’t get you high, there’s no detrimental side effects. But what it can do for you, what it can do for your brain — war vets that have had brain injuries, the ones that have used cannibis, be it marijuana or the oils, their brains aren’t damaged as bad, and they heal quicker.

“And when we’re talking football, there’s one thing that’s either going to kill this game, or allow it to survive, and that’s how we protect the brain.”

Plummer said it’s been fun to educate people on the benefits of hemp oils and the like, but getting the NFL to listen has been difficult.

“Some people are like, ‘oh, great, peddling drugs. What about my kids, what do I tell them?’” he said. “And I say well, I hope you talk to your kids about all drugs, not just marijuana — pharmeceutical drugs, etc. Take this as a chance to educate children about the risks, so you have a child that knows.

“I’m not advocating for everyone to go around smoking marijuana and being high, but if you’re in pain, and have ailments, and you can’t find a cure for it, and nothing’s helping, look into it. That’s all I want to get across to people — check it out.

“I’m not fighting the league, I’m just trying to help ’em.”

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