ferrarispider95
10-19-2007, 12:48 PM
You can't make this sh*t up.
http://www.denverpost.com/broncos/ci_7220039
Plummer having a ball with handball
Marriage, family also priorities for retired QB
By Rich Hammond
Special to The Denver Post
Article Last Updated: 10/19/2007 12:25:16 AM MDT
NFL starting quarterback Jake Plummer, who has announced his decision to retire, plays in the Simple Green U.S. Open Handball tournament Thursday night October 18, 2007 at the Los Caballeros Racquet and Sports Club in Fountain Valley California. (Long Beach Press-Telegram/Corbis | Steven Georges)
FOUNTAIN VALLEY, CALIF. — Jake Plummer could be on an NFL practice field today. He could be running sprints, throwing in 7-on-7 drills and listening to a coach bark in his ear after an overthrown fade route. But instead he is in California, playing a sport unknown to most Americans.
Seven-plus months after his surprising early retirement, the 32-year-old former Broncos quarterback has found happiness on a handball court. Think racquetball, without the racquets. And if the NFL even crosses Plummer's mind these days, he won't admit to it.
So as teams turn to retread quarterbacks such as Gus Frerotte and Vinny Testaverde, Plummer said he is having no second thoughts.
"The NFL is so competitive, but it's also a very cutthroat business at times," Plummer said Thursday as he prepared for his first- round doubles match in the U.S. Open of Handball. "I spent 10 years doing a lot of great things, and I wanted to get out before my career ended the way a lot of other people's careers end. I got out because I wanted to play handball and I wanted to do other things.
"I want to play with my kids when they get older. If I had played a few more years, I might not be able to do that. I feel it already, in my knees and my back. Like I said, this sport is not easy, and it brings out all those little ailments that I have. It makes me fully aware of how beat up I got in those 10 years."
Plummer says handball is his sport of choice and he "will be playing this until I die."
The U.S. Open is the highest-profile event Plummer has played in since his March 9 retirement. He plays with his 35-year-old brother, Eric, and while the Plummer brothers lost their first-round match in two straight sets Thursday, they are considered solid players among the sport's elite.
All of the chatter in the Southern California sports club centered on handball, not football. Tampa Bay still holds Plummer's rights, and has filed a grievance to recoup roughly $7 million in bonus money, but it seems that the NFL is far from Plummer's thoughts.
"We don't even talk football, so I don't think he misses it," Eric Plummer said. "If he does, he hasn't told me.
"I wasn't surprised (about Jake's retirement), no. I didn't know (in advance), because it's never anything that he shared with me, but I just think he played a long time and it's physically exacting and it takes a toll on your body. I think he just sees the next 30 years of his life and he wants to be able to enjoy that. If you play five or 10 more years of football, you're just going to be that much more beat up."
Done with NFL
Jake Plummer is healthy and happy, happy to discuss anything other than the NFL. A U.S. Handball Association official warned that any football questions would lead to Plummer ending an interview, but several times in a 15-minute talk, Plummer brought it up.
Plummer, who lives in his native Idaho, spoke about how he watches college football - his alma mater, Arizona State, is undefeated - but rarely catches even a glimpse of an NFL game and said he has no interest in being involved with the NFL, even on its fringes.
"I'm not going to retire and sit in a broadcast booth, because you spend more time around football than when you played," Plummer said. "I could go tomorrow to any of the channels, probably any of them that I wanted to. I just don't want to, though. That's why I retired, to get away from football and do something different."
Plummer spoke with a gift bag slung over his left shoulder, the bag being the standard prize for tournament registration. Moments earlier, he had approached the woman behind the desk, who asked his name and handed him the bag and his T-shirt.
With his beard full but trimmed, Plummer still looks very much like a top-level athlete. He played in a T-shirt and shorts, with a sock used as a makeshift headband. He's not an emotional player, but did protest a call early in the first game. After the match he headed up to the spectators' area and had a beer.
"Jake must be a pretty good handball player," Broncos coach Mike Shanahan said. "He's a great athlete. He uses his left hand almost as well as his right hand, which probably helps him in handball."
"New frontier"
On Thursday, the Plummer brothers were cheered on by an audience of perhaps 50, including Kollette Plummer, a former Broncos cheerleader who married Jake in August.
"It's a new frontier," said Plummer, who said he plans to start a family. "We went out on the (handball) court one time and we were throwing the ball around. It hit her in the arm and she's like, 'I'm out of here.' So I said, 'Oh, well, OK."'
So Plummer will go on with his brother. Handball is a family sport, one their father taught them as toddlers, and Plummer said he enjoys its simplicity and fun and wants to use his charitable foundation to spread the little-known sport to children.
His tournament over, after one match, Plummer will head back to Idaho and find other outlets for his competitive impulses.
"I'm waiting for the snow to pile up so I can go skiing," Plummer said. "Until then, I do whatever I want, which does not include watching film, studying game plans, getting iced. ... I don't miss that at all."
Staff writer Bill Williamson contributed to this report.
http://www.denverpost.com/broncos/ci_7220039
Plummer having a ball with handball
Marriage, family also priorities for retired QB
By Rich Hammond
Special to The Denver Post
Article Last Updated: 10/19/2007 12:25:16 AM MDT
NFL starting quarterback Jake Plummer, who has announced his decision to retire, plays in the Simple Green U.S. Open Handball tournament Thursday night October 18, 2007 at the Los Caballeros Racquet and Sports Club in Fountain Valley California. (Long Beach Press-Telegram/Corbis | Steven Georges)
FOUNTAIN VALLEY, CALIF. — Jake Plummer could be on an NFL practice field today. He could be running sprints, throwing in 7-on-7 drills and listening to a coach bark in his ear after an overthrown fade route. But instead he is in California, playing a sport unknown to most Americans.
Seven-plus months after his surprising early retirement, the 32-year-old former Broncos quarterback has found happiness on a handball court. Think racquetball, without the racquets. And if the NFL even crosses Plummer's mind these days, he won't admit to it.
So as teams turn to retread quarterbacks such as Gus Frerotte and Vinny Testaverde, Plummer said he is having no second thoughts.
"The NFL is so competitive, but it's also a very cutthroat business at times," Plummer said Thursday as he prepared for his first- round doubles match in the U.S. Open of Handball. "I spent 10 years doing a lot of great things, and I wanted to get out before my career ended the way a lot of other people's careers end. I got out because I wanted to play handball and I wanted to do other things.
"I want to play with my kids when they get older. If I had played a few more years, I might not be able to do that. I feel it already, in my knees and my back. Like I said, this sport is not easy, and it brings out all those little ailments that I have. It makes me fully aware of how beat up I got in those 10 years."
Plummer says handball is his sport of choice and he "will be playing this until I die."
The U.S. Open is the highest-profile event Plummer has played in since his March 9 retirement. He plays with his 35-year-old brother, Eric, and while the Plummer brothers lost their first-round match in two straight sets Thursday, they are considered solid players among the sport's elite.
All of the chatter in the Southern California sports club centered on handball, not football. Tampa Bay still holds Plummer's rights, and has filed a grievance to recoup roughly $7 million in bonus money, but it seems that the NFL is far from Plummer's thoughts.
"We don't even talk football, so I don't think he misses it," Eric Plummer said. "If he does, he hasn't told me.
"I wasn't surprised (about Jake's retirement), no. I didn't know (in advance), because it's never anything that he shared with me, but I just think he played a long time and it's physically exacting and it takes a toll on your body. I think he just sees the next 30 years of his life and he wants to be able to enjoy that. If you play five or 10 more years of football, you're just going to be that much more beat up."
Done with NFL
Jake Plummer is healthy and happy, happy to discuss anything other than the NFL. A U.S. Handball Association official warned that any football questions would lead to Plummer ending an interview, but several times in a 15-minute talk, Plummer brought it up.
Plummer, who lives in his native Idaho, spoke about how he watches college football - his alma mater, Arizona State, is undefeated - but rarely catches even a glimpse of an NFL game and said he has no interest in being involved with the NFL, even on its fringes.
"I'm not going to retire and sit in a broadcast booth, because you spend more time around football than when you played," Plummer said. "I could go tomorrow to any of the channels, probably any of them that I wanted to. I just don't want to, though. That's why I retired, to get away from football and do something different."
Plummer spoke with a gift bag slung over his left shoulder, the bag being the standard prize for tournament registration. Moments earlier, he had approached the woman behind the desk, who asked his name and handed him the bag and his T-shirt.
With his beard full but trimmed, Plummer still looks very much like a top-level athlete. He played in a T-shirt and shorts, with a sock used as a makeshift headband. He's not an emotional player, but did protest a call early in the first game. After the match he headed up to the spectators' area and had a beer.
"Jake must be a pretty good handball player," Broncos coach Mike Shanahan said. "He's a great athlete. He uses his left hand almost as well as his right hand, which probably helps him in handball."
"New frontier"
On Thursday, the Plummer brothers were cheered on by an audience of perhaps 50, including Kollette Plummer, a former Broncos cheerleader who married Jake in August.
"It's a new frontier," said Plummer, who said he plans to start a family. "We went out on the (handball) court one time and we were throwing the ball around. It hit her in the arm and she's like, 'I'm out of here.' So I said, 'Oh, well, OK."'
So Plummer will go on with his brother. Handball is a family sport, one their father taught them as toddlers, and Plummer said he enjoys its simplicity and fun and wants to use his charitable foundation to spread the little-known sport to children.
His tournament over, after one match, Plummer will head back to Idaho and find other outlets for his competitive impulses.
"I'm waiting for the snow to pile up so I can go skiing," Plummer said. "Until then, I do whatever I want, which does not include watching film, studying game plans, getting iced. ... I don't miss that at all."
Staff writer Bill Williamson contributed to this report.