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Great article about Jake and his locker room credibility and how the team sees him. Enjoy!
washingtonpost.com
Plummer Stays On an Even Keel
Bronco Has 'Perfect Mentality' for QB
By Les Carpenter
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, October 6, 2006; E03
ENGLEWOOD, Colo. -- Every Thursday night, the men who make up the
Denver Broncos' defense gather at a local restaurant, cut into
gigantic slabs of meat and talk about football. It has become a
popular outing, a bonding session, something they believe has made
them better.
And lately, the dinners have been marked by the presence of a bearded
man who has nothing to do with the Broncos' defense. Yet no one seems
to mind. In fact, most of the Denver defensive players are thrilled
that their quarterback, Jake Plummer, thinks enough of them to stop by.
"He really cares about his teammates," Broncos safety John Lynch says.
It seems like a small thing, stopping by a dinner one evening a week.
But the NFL is loaded with weekly defensive outings and few, if any of
them, are attended by the team's quarterback. Spending time with the
defense is not something most NFL quarterbacks do.
And it presents an interesting contrast. Because the Broncos, who play
the Ravens on Monday night, are 2-1 but have done little offensively.
And a significant reason they have not put up much of an attack is
because Plummer has been intercepted four times. This has not endeared
him to a local populace still smarting over the two interceptions he
threw in the AFC championship game in January, and many are convinced
he is the only thing standing in the way of another NFL title.
But inside the team's locker room, Plummer is beloved as a normal guy
who thinks nothing of giving up his evenings to hang out with his
teammates, a quarterback without pretensions. And because of this they
stand firmly behind him, united in support of their besieged leader.
"I think a lot of it is his demeanor," says former Redskins tight end
Stephen Alexander, who now plays for the Broncos. "He doesn't let the
other stuff bother him. He doesn't care what people say. He doesn't
care what people think. He's going to do what Jake thinks is best."
There is a certain respect that fills an NFL locker room for the man
who hears the boos but seems oblivious to their poisoned darts.
"He has a perfect mentality for a quarterback," Alexander says. "I've
seen quarterbacks go in the tank or start playing scared. He just lets
it go and forgets about it."
Plummer carries an indifference his teammates love. He doesn't strut,
he doesn't preen. He shrugs and does his own thing, no matter how odd
his own thing might seem in the buttoned-up world of the NFL.
After all, how many professional quarterbacks drive a Honda Element?
Or wear a thrift-store corduroy suit on the team plane for road trips?
If any of these things seem staged, to create for effect some Wild
West image for the player who grew up in Boise, Idaho, it would
probably fall flat. But because Plummer pulls everything off so
naturally, he only builds the respect of his teammates even more.
"He's just a little different," Alexander says. "I think it's awesome.
I've never been a guy who has been consumed by what you wear and what
you drive. I love that about him. He doesn't let money affect him."
Asked about this on a recent day outside the Broncos' locker room,
Plummer nods. He is sitting on a table in a hallway, wearing his
practice jersey over a tattered, white long-sleeved shirt and he looks
around surveying the title contender under his charge. Like many
athletes who have never won a championship, he has become consumed
with a title, he says. Everything now is about that.
"If you're lucky enough like me to have had a good first couple of
[contract] deals, I'm not playing this game to make another $20
million," Plummer says. "I can live off what I made in, shoot, my
first three years. I have a decent outlook on my life. Financially I
am set. What do I do now? I'm playing to win a Super Bowl."
At 31, with 10 years in the league, he can probably see the end
coming. At least in Denver, where the quarterback of the future
already has been identified as Jay Cutler, who has startled everybody
around the team with rocket-like throws that have perfect accuracy.
That the Broncos used a first-round pick in this year's draft to take
Cutler only accentuates the obvious notion that he will be the starter
very soon.
Yet as much as the fans clamor for him, there is also a sense around
the Broncos that Cutler is a year or two away. The team, for now, is
Plummer's.
For the first six years of his career, he was something of a novelty
act. A lanky quarterback, seemingly too thin to be on a professional
football field, loping around the Arizona Cardinals' backfield trying
to bring perpetually wretched teams back from another impossible
chasm. He was "Jake the Snake" and he gained a reputation for being
intercepted as much as he made the unfathomable happen.
But when the Broncos were in the market for a quarterback before the
2003 season, their coach, Mike Shanahan, became infatuated with the
way Plummer seemed to make magic out of nothing. He watched tapes of
every pass the player threw in his career and became convinced that
Plummer's biggest mistakes came when the Cardinals were losing and he
had to do something, anything. All he needed was to learn the system
that John Elway used to win two championships here and he would be fine.
"It took a couple of years," Shanahan says.
Still, there was the old Plummer with three interceptions in a
season-opening loss to the Rams and then another interception in a
near-loss to Kansas City. The hum for Cutler grew louder around town.
And while it died somewhat after he threw his first two touchdowns of
the year in a win at New England, the criticism -- including some for
a summertime road rage fender bender -- is never far away.
"Obviously it bothers you," he says. "The only way it won't is if you
don't have a pulse."
The admission is brief. These are things he does not wish to dwell
upon. If fans boo, then they boo. He's used to it by now.
"Fame doesn't define me," he says. "If it did, I would be miserable."
So instead he basks in the embrace of his coaches and teammates. "You
kind of respect a quarterback who likes to shake it up every once in
awhile like a defensive guy," Lynch says.
In the end, this is what matters to Plummer the most. If the people
around the Broncos love him, he can deal with whatever churns outside.
After all, this is the land of Elway and no Bronco quarterback, no
matter what he does, seems able to live up to Elway around here.
This, he says, he understands. But Denver was his great chance at
winning big. And if he has to deal with the howl of the fans who think
he will never be Elway, it's worth it to still have that chance at
winning.
"I'll take that trade," he says.
Plummer Stays On an Even Keel
Bronco Has 'Perfect Mentality' for QB
By Les Carpenter
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, October 6, 2006; E03
ENGLEWOOD, Colo. -- Every Thursday night, the men who make up the
Denver Broncos' defense gather at a local restaurant, cut into
gigantic slabs of meat and talk about football. It has become a
popular outing, a bonding session, something they believe has made
them better.
And lately, the dinners have been marked by the presence of a bearded
man who has nothing to do with the Broncos' defense. Yet no one seems
to mind. In fact, most of the Denver defensive players are thrilled
that their quarterback, Jake Plummer, thinks enough of them to stop by.
"He really cares about his teammates," Broncos safety John Lynch says.
It seems like a small thing, stopping by a dinner one evening a week.
But the NFL is loaded with weekly defensive outings and few, if any of
them, are attended by the team's quarterback. Spending time with the
defense is not something most NFL quarterbacks do.
And it presents an interesting contrast. Because the Broncos, who play
the Ravens on Monday night, are 2-1 but have done little offensively.
And a significant reason they have not put up much of an attack is
because Plummer has been intercepted four times. This has not endeared
him to a local populace still smarting over the two interceptions he
threw in the AFC championship game in January, and many are convinced
he is the only thing standing in the way of another NFL title.
But inside the team's locker room, Plummer is beloved as a normal guy
who thinks nothing of giving up his evenings to hang out with his
teammates, a quarterback without pretensions. And because of this they
stand firmly behind him, united in support of their besieged leader.
"I think a lot of it is his demeanor," says former Redskins tight end
Stephen Alexander, who now plays for the Broncos. "He doesn't let the
other stuff bother him. He doesn't care what people say. He doesn't
care what people think. He's going to do what Jake thinks is best."
There is a certain respect that fills an NFL locker room for the man
who hears the boos but seems oblivious to their poisoned darts.
"He has a perfect mentality for a quarterback," Alexander says. "I've
seen quarterbacks go in the tank or start playing scared. He just lets
it go and forgets about it."
Plummer carries an indifference his teammates love. He doesn't strut,
he doesn't preen. He shrugs and does his own thing, no matter how odd
his own thing might seem in the buttoned-up world of the NFL.
After all, how many professional quarterbacks drive a Honda Element?
Or wear a thrift-store corduroy suit on the team plane for road trips?
If any of these things seem staged, to create for effect some Wild
West image for the player who grew up in Boise, Idaho, it would
probably fall flat. But because Plummer pulls everything off so
naturally, he only builds the respect of his teammates even more.
"He's just a little different," Alexander says. "I think it's awesome.
I've never been a guy who has been consumed by what you wear and what
you drive. I love that about him. He doesn't let money affect him."
Asked about this on a recent day outside the Broncos' locker room,
Plummer nods. He is sitting on a table in a hallway, wearing his
practice jersey over a tattered, white long-sleeved shirt and he looks
around surveying the title contender under his charge. Like many
athletes who have never won a championship, he has become consumed
with a title, he says. Everything now is about that.
"If you're lucky enough like me to have had a good first couple of
[contract] deals, I'm not playing this game to make another $20
million," Plummer says. "I can live off what I made in, shoot, my
first three years. I have a decent outlook on my life. Financially I
am set. What do I do now? I'm playing to win a Super Bowl."
At 31, with 10 years in the league, he can probably see the end
coming. At least in Denver, where the quarterback of the future
already has been identified as Jay Cutler, who has startled everybody
around the team with rocket-like throws that have perfect accuracy.
That the Broncos used a first-round pick in this year's draft to take
Cutler only accentuates the obvious notion that he will be the starter
very soon.
Yet as much as the fans clamor for him, there is also a sense around
the Broncos that Cutler is a year or two away. The team, for now, is
Plummer's.
For the first six years of his career, he was something of a novelty
act. A lanky quarterback, seemingly too thin to be on a professional
football field, loping around the Arizona Cardinals' backfield trying
to bring perpetually wretched teams back from another impossible
chasm. He was "Jake the Snake" and he gained a reputation for being
intercepted as much as he made the unfathomable happen.
But when the Broncos were in the market for a quarterback before the
2003 season, their coach, Mike Shanahan, became infatuated with the
way Plummer seemed to make magic out of nothing. He watched tapes of
every pass the player threw in his career and became convinced that
Plummer's biggest mistakes came when the Cardinals were losing and he
had to do something, anything. All he needed was to learn the system
that John Elway used to win two championships here and he would be fine.
"It took a couple of years," Shanahan says.
Still, there was the old Plummer with three interceptions in a
season-opening loss to the Rams and then another interception in a
near-loss to Kansas City. The hum for Cutler grew louder around town.
And while it died somewhat after he threw his first two touchdowns of
the year in a win at New England, the criticism -- including some for
a summertime road rage fender bender -- is never far away.
"Obviously it bothers you," he says. "The only way it won't is if you
don't have a pulse."
The admission is brief. These are things he does not wish to dwell
upon. If fans boo, then they boo. He's used to it by now.
"Fame doesn't define me," he says. "If it did, I would be miserable."
So instead he basks in the embrace of his coaches and teammates. "You
kind of respect a quarterback who likes to shake it up every once in
awhile like a defensive guy," Lynch says.
In the end, this is what matters to Plummer the most. If the people
around the Broncos love him, he can deal with whatever churns outside.
After all, this is the land of Elway and no Bronco quarterback, no
matter what he does, seems able to live up to Elway around here.
This, he says, he understands. But Denver was his great chance at
winning big. And if he has to deal with the howl of the fans who think
he will never be Elway, it's worth it to still have that chance at
winning.
"I'll take that trade," he says.
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