Jake Plummer didn't give a shit after he was benched in 2006...

[Hammock Parties]

This is hilarious. I love this guy.

Ever the optimist, though, he soon noticed a silver lining. Suddenly he could simply revel in the grandeur of the game, in the sights and smells of the stadium.

He spent pregame warmups playing football golf with fellow backup Preston Parsons. He ate hot dogs at halftime, joked with fans. For 14 years he'd started every game for his college and pro teams, other than the first few of his freshman and rookie seasons. So now he could finally breathe in the world.

"I was like, Man, this is a blast," he says. "I didn't study the game plan, I didn't have a clue what was going on."

Then, in the second quarter of the 49ers game, Cutler was sidelined by a crushing hit. So here was Shanahan, calling in Plummer. Shanahan, who had questioned Plummer's work ethic even though he was one of the team's best-conditioned players, who had ignored warnings by other players not to switch quarterbacks. (Even Cutler, after his first start, told Plummer the team would have won had he played, according to Stefan Fatsis's book A Few Seconds of Panic.) What's more, though Shanahan didn't know it, Plummer had made up his mind to retire after the season.

So how can you blame Plummer for doing what he did next—for going out on the field and trying to win the damn thing? "I just went for broke," Plummer says. "I remember Mike Bell went down for like a 60-yard play. And the first guy to pick him up was me. I was running alongside him. I was so psyched. I was running around, shouting at the other team, 'Jake the ****ing Snake is back!'"

Parsons remembers the electricity, the stirrings of another Plummer comeback. "And he was doing it by basically saying **** you to the coach," says Parsons. "Which is something all players wish they could do but no one has the guts to."

With a chance to extend the Broncos' 3--0 lead, Plummer says, "I rolled out to my left, made a guy miss and was like, Ah, there goes Javon Walker, and I just heaved a Hail Mary." Plummer pauses. "And he trips, and the safety intercepts it."

With that, the magic was bottled. Shanahan put Cutler back in, but not before trying to chastise Plummer, who walked past, ignoring his coach. Quarterbacks coach Pat McPherson then walked over. "Gosh, you just really can't make that throw," he told Plummer. And that's how Plummer's football career ended, some would say fittingly: with a desperation pass picked off.

Read more: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vau...#ixzz1DsfcVV8H