Background and career
Jason Steven "Jake" Plummer (born December 19, 1974) is an American former professional football player who was a quarterback for 10 seasons in the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the Arizona State Sun Devils. Plummer was selected by the Arizona Cardinals in the second round of the 1997 NFL draft, spending six seasons with the Cardinals and then four with the Denver Broncos. Since retiring from the field, he launched Umbo, a functional mushroom supplement company alongside former UFC Champion Rashad Evans. He subsequently founded MyCOLove Farm in Fort Lupton, Colorado, to better understand mushrooms and mycology. His nickname, "Jake the Snake", has no connection to professional wrestler Jake "the Snake" Roberts. Coincidentally, Plummer and Roberts each adopted the nickname as a tribute to former Oakland Raiders quarterback Ken Stabler, who was nicknamed "Snake."
Plummer was born in Boise, Idaho; he and his two older brothers grew up in Smiley Creek. They were often at the family lumber mill and warehouse in the town of 50 in the Sawtooths (the mountains of the Sawtooth Range). In his youth, Plummer attended Pierce Park Elementary and Hillside Junior High. In third grade at Pierce Park, he started going by Jake after being asked by his teacher to use a different name because there were four other students named Jason. He graduated from Capital High School in 1993, where he was a three-sport star in high school, playing baseball and basketball in addition to football; he was also selected all-state as both a quarterback and punter and passed for 6,097 yards and 68 touchdowns in his junior and senior years. He originally wanted to play football at Stanford, but they only offered him a preferred walk-on offer; he instead accepted a full ride from California until Hue Jackson, then a coach at Arizona State, heavily recruited Plummer and eventually convinced him to recommit to the Sun Devils. He also received scholarship offers from Boise State, Idaho, Montana, Oregon State, Washington State, and Wyoming.
Plummer accepted a football scholarship to Arizona State University in Tempe. He did not redshirt and took over as the starting quarterback (from Grady Benton) early in his freshman season in 1993. He had consistent, but not outstanding, statistical output during his career, and never led the Pac-10 in any major statistical category. He threw for an impressive 1,650 yards in his freshman season, but also had seven interceptions to just nine touchdowns. He broke 2,000 yards in 1994 as a sophomore, and upped his touchdowns to 15. As a junior in 1995, his 2,222 yards and 17 touchdowns, many coming at pivotal moments in games, earned him a strong fan base and all-conference honors despite a lackluster 6–5 record. His senior season in 1996 was arguably the best in school history. Arizona State attracted national attention on September 21 when they shut out top-ranked Nebraska 19–0 to snap the Huskers' 26-game winning streak. Plummer evaded a sack to toss a 25-yard touchdown on the game's opening drive, and finished 20 of 36 for 292 yards, setting a new school record for career passing yards in the process. He led ASU to an undefeated regular season and a Pac-10 championship, aided in no small part by fellow all-conference linebacker and close personal friend Pat Tillman. In the Rose Bowl, he scored a sensational 11-yard go-ahead touchdown run late in the fourth quarter, but Ohio State responded and won 20–17. A victory likely would have meant a national championship as the only undefeated team in the nation, but their final ranking was fourth. Plummer was third in the Heisman Trophy voting behind Florida's Danny Wuerffel and Iowa State's Troy Davis, was a first-team All-American, and the Pac-10's Offensive Player of the Year. Plummer ended his career with several school records; most have since been surpassed, but his 34 games with a rushing or passing touchdown remains an ASU record. A dedicated student, Plummer was also a two-time Academic All-Conference player. A 2013 review listed Jake Plummer as the best player to wear number 16 in Sun Devil history.
Plummer was selected in the second round of the 1997 NFL draft by the Arizona Cardinals. He played behind Kent Graham and Stoney Case at the start of his rookie season. He took his first snap late in the 4th quarter of the seventh game, and promptly led the Cardinals on a 98-yard drive, going 4-of-6 for 87 yards and capping it with a 31-yard go-ahead touchdown. He led the Cardinals to three of their four victories that year. Already locally popular from his days at ASU, according to teammate Chad Carpenter he was now treated "like a god. We go to a restaurant and people stand up and clap when he walks by." In 1998, the Cardinals drafted Plummer's friend Pat Tillman, and the two started all sixteen games en route to a 9–7 regular season record. In the tenth game against Dallas Cowboys, he threw for a stellar 465 yards and three touchdowns. In the playoffs, he led the Cardinals to an upset of the same Cowboys for the franchise's first postseason victory since 1947, before losing in the second round to the Minnesota Vikings. Plummer had a disappointing season in 1999; he went 3–8 as a starter, threw nine touchdowns to 24 interceptions, and the Cardinals finished 6–10. Regarding Plummer's season, the Football Outsiders commented: "At the start of the 1999 season, Jake Plummer was being celebrated as one of the NFL's best young quarterbacks, the man who would make the Cardinals respectable again. By the end of the 1999 season, Plummer ranked as the league's worst quarterback." His reputation as a risk-taking "gunslinger" became a liability. In 2000 Plummer threw for 2,946 yards, 21 interceptions, and had a 66.0 quarterback rating. Although he reached 10,000 career passing yards (in 47 starts), Plummer compiled a 3–11 record and the Cardinals finished last in the NFC East. Plummer bounced back in 2001 with his best statistical season with the Cardinals. He was one of only two NFL quarterbacks to take every snap for his team (Kerry Collins was the other), and he passed for 3,653 yards, eighteen touchdowns, and fourteen interceptions. During the season, he had a stretch of 142 consecutive pass attempts without throwing an interception. Plummer also led the NFL in fourth-quarter passing yards (1,227) and the Cardinals to a 7–9 record. Plummer's last season with the Cardinals was 2002 and again his statistics were down (65.7 passer rating, 2,972 yards, eighteen touchdowns and twenty interceptions). On September 22 against the San Diego Chargers, he eclipsed 15,000 career passing yards. As of 2017's NFL off-season, Jake Plummer held at least nine Cardinals franchise records, including:
Passing TDs: rookie season (fifteen in 1997), rookie game (four on 1997-12-07 WAS) Passer Rating: rookie game (119.1 on 1997-11-30 PIT) Sacked: game (ten on 1997-11-30 PIT), rookie season (52 in 1997) Yds/Pass Att: rookie season (7.44 in 1997) Pass Yds/Game: rookie season (220.3 in 1997) 300-yard passing games: playoffs (two)
After spending 5 seasons in Arizona, Plummer signed as a free agent with the Denver Broncos in 2003, replacing Brian Griese. Though the laid-back Plummer would clash often with the domineering head coach Mike Shanahan, his guidance helped Plummer finish with a career-high 91.2 quarterback rating. On September 22, he had the longest run by a Broncos QB on Monday Night Football, a 40-yard scramble in a 31–10 win over the Oakland Raiders. He led the Broncos to a wild card playoff berth, where the Broncos were beaten 41–10 by the Indianapolis Colts. In 2004 he matched or surpassed several of Broncos Hall of Fame QB John Elway's passing records (including passing yardage and passing touchdowns in a single season). In the opening game victory against Kansas City, he reached 20,000 career passing yards. In the eighth game, he threw for a spectacular 499 yards and four touchdowns against Atlanta. However, continuing a career-long shortcoming, he also threw three interceptions in the loss, and led the league that season with twenty. He led the Broncos to a second straight wild card playoff berth, but the Broncos were again beaten by the Colts 49–24, despite Plummer's 103.1 passer rating in the contest. In 2005, Plummer experienced arguably his best season as a professional. He threw 229 passes without an interception, the longest such streak of his career. He also began serving as Denver's holder, which he would continue to do through the 2006 season, as well. Along the way, Plummer helped the Broncos compile a 13–3 record, a #2 seed, and a first round bye in the AFC playoffs (behind the Colts). He also earned a Pro Bowl selection. The Broncos' first game was against the New England Patriots in the AFC Divisional Game at Invesco Field. Although not outstanding, Plummer's performance (15-for-26 for 197 yards, one touchdown, one interception) helped the Broncos break the Patriots' winning streak of eleven postseason games and gain their first postseason victory since Super Bowl XXXIII. However, Plummer accounted for four turnovers in the AFC Championship game and the Broncos were defeated 34–17 by the eventual Super Bowl champion Pittsburgh Steelers. On November 27, 2006, after a lackluster performance in the first eleven games, and following back-to-back losses to the San Diego Chargers and Kansas City Chiefs, head coach Mike Shanahan announced that Plummer would be replaced at starting quarterback by rookie Jay Cutler. The decision to hand a 7–4 team over to a rookie quarterback was met by fans and media with mixed reactions. Those who viewed Plummer as inconsistent heralded the change as one that would revive the Broncos' struggling offense; others claimed such a move was ill-advised, especially given that Plummer had guided the Broncos to the AFC Championship game the year before; Plummer had also been 40–18 with Denver in both regular season and playoff games, while leading his teams to thirty game-tying/winning drives in his career, a league high. In the last game of the season, Plummer came off the bench against the San Francisco 49ers after Cutler suffered a concussion. He played the remainder of the first half before Cutler played the second half. As of the 2017 NFL off-season, Plummer holds at least two Broncos franchise records, including:
