THE FRONT ROW with MARK NELKE: Jake the Snake talks voting ... and football

Jake Plummer's first foray into politics wasn't pleasant.

"I ran for class president in grade school, and it wasn’t the greatest experience, so I said, 'Enough of that,'" Plummer recalled the other day.

Even when he turned 18, and into his college years playing football at Arizona State, he doesn't remember registering to vote, as many did.

This year, with the big push on getting people registered to vote, then actually voting, many college athletes will be given the day off from practice on election day, Nov. 3, so they can vote.

Jake admits that would have influenced him to vote, back in his ASU days.

"Yeah, I think if there had been more importance put on that, and more dialogue about that, it would have been something earlier in my life that I would have been more involved in," he said.

But as he got older and understood the importance of voting, Jake registered and started voting as often as he could.

"Playing ball, it wasn’t something I thought about much, until the tail end of my career," Plummer said. "Having kids, it started to dawn on me, the importance of teaching them that it’s important to vote. And when you start paying taxes … you start thinking, 'Hey wait a sec, what are they taking my money to do? I don’t really believe in that. I’m not going to vote for that, but I want to vote for this.'"

WITH THE heightened attention on this year's presidential election, Jake Plummer is one of several former NFL stars who were asked by the league to speak out on the importance of registering to vote, and then to vote.

Jake remembered in 2000, when he was playing for the Arizona Cardinals, and he was asked to go out and encourage voters to approve an increase in tourism taxes to fund a new stadium for the team.

Jake and a teammate, wide receiver Rob Moore, went door to door, asking folks to vote yes (imagine opening your door on a weekend afternoon, and there stands the quarterback of your local NFL team).

"I was involved in getting that vote passed for the Arizona Cardinals on Prop 302, and it passed," Plummer said. "I think that’s when I started to know the importance of your voice … That was a big year for the Arizona Cardinals. They probably wouldn’t be in Arizona anymore if it hadn’t been for that passing ... the Cardinals probably would have moved to L.A."

Then again ...

"I might have loved L.A. — I might be a movie star now," he said with a laugh.

Being the face of the Cardinals' franchise at the time, Plummer said he was excited to help out.

Then, and now, as it turns out.

"As athletes, we do have a voice — if you can be influential, and get people out to vote," he said. "It’s a big election year."

IN A phone interview with The Press earlier this week from his home in Boulder, Colo., where he lives with his wife and three young children, Jake the Snake also talked some football.

He said playing football before little or no fans, which is happening in NFL stadiums these days because of the COVID-19 pandemic, "would have been strange. When you break it down, I was playing for my teammates, but having the fans there was always fun, especially the energy they brought.

"Even on the road was extra motivating, especially at Philly, there were some pretty nasty dudes down there saying some pretty awful stuff, but in a way it was fun to jaw back at ‘em and get that blood boiling," Plummer said. "But at this point, it would be nice to just be playing. Fans or not, it would be good to be out competing.

"If they had some recordings of '$%#%*& Snake,' that would make it more realistic," Jake said with a laugh.

You have to find that motivation somewhere else, he said, because there aren't those fans in the stands “who want to say mean things about your mom and you.”

IN ADDITION to throwing for 29,253 yards and 161 touchdowns, Jake Plummer also ran for 1,853 yards and 17 touchdowns during his 10-year NFL career — six with the Cardinals, four with the Denver Broncos.

Asked if he would have run more back then, if the league and the officials had protected the quarterback as much as they do now, Jake replied, "Oh, hell, yeah. I used to have to worry about getting drilled — the dudes are trying to kill you when you’d run.

Now, as a quarterback, guys are not coming in full (speed), because if they do, and you start to go down to slide, there’s a 15-yard penalty and a $25,000 fine. Guys are a lot more careful, and not coming into it as violently."

The difference, he said, was what happened to quarterbacks after they threw the ball then — and after they throw the ball now.

"I played in the days of Ray Lewis, who would take a couple of steps and just blast you, and they wouldn’t throw a flag," Plummer said. "It’s changed, but it’s good. It’s allowed for an evolving of the quarterback position, to the more athletic players. When I played, Kyler Murray (current QB of the Arizona Cardinals) wouldn’t even have gotten drafted … 'No, you don’t fit in this league. You’re too small, you’re too short. You can’t stand in the pocket 30 times a game and throw the ball.' Now, the game’s evolved … now, as fans, we get to see these athletes like him dazzle us, and athletes like Lamar Jackson dazzle us with their abilities."

Jake said he slid a lot when he ran, but he also liked to dive head-first, for the couple extra yards. But when he was in the pocket ...

"Now, when they hit you in the pocket, they don’t take you down to the ground as much. Back in the day, if you threw, and they were close, that D-lineman was going to hit you in the ribs, lift you up, and then slam you into the ground. And there’d be no penalty. Where now, if they did that, that guy’s probably going to be ejected, maybe sit in a prison if he does it to Tom Brady …

"It’s a different game, but it’s good," Jake said.

THESE DAYS Jake, now 45, keeps busy with his interactive playbook that teams from high school to the NFL level are using. His wife, Kollette, home-schools their children, and he's there for the occasional lesson, and to give mom a break.

Last fall, the former star at Capital High in Boise, who still spends part of his summers at his cabin on Lake Coeur d'Alene, and whose dad and brother still live in North Idaho, was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame.

Jake is only the second Idaho-born player to be inducted.

He remembers being back in New York at the induction ceremony thinking "Wow, it was worth it to do all of this."

"I was just this little kid in Boise, Idaho, playing tackle football at Pierce Park Elementary, and now I’m in the college hall of fame … what a journey," he 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 @CdAPressSports.