Davii
09-14-2008, 01:36 AM
I don't want this to start another Jake war, there's been enough of that.
This is an excerpt from the book that guy who was "kicking" wrote Jake's last season. If you read the end of the story it seems to me Jake had some serious attitude problems the last year he was here and it started in the offseason.
Take it for what it's worth.
Editor's note: In 2006, sportswriter Stefan Fatsis joined the Broncos as a placekicker during training camp. In this excerpt from his new book, "A Few Seconds of Panic: A 5-foot-8, 170-pound, 43-year-old Sportswriter Plays in the NFL," Fatsis talks with quarterback Jake Plummer before and after he was replaced by rookie Jay Cutler.
Jake has no regrets about coming to Denver, despite the criticism he has faced about his playing style, his statistics and, now, his "failure" to win the big game — the 2005 AFC Championship Game against Pittsburgh. "It was a good decision. A big-time place to come," he says. "And they were hungry. I brought in an attitude that was not like the one they had here."
But after completing their best season since John Elway, and Jake's best season as a pro, the Broncos scaled the draft ladder to pick a quarterback. Jake was in his unwinterized, 2,000-square-foot cabin in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, unreachable. "I'm sure they knew not to try to call me, because I would have said, 'Do whatever the hell you want to do,' " he says.
Still, it bugged him, the way the business of football naturally bugs players, no matter how much money they've made or how successful they've been. Jake understood that teams do as they please, and that winning teams like the Broncos don't often get to select high in the draft. But Jake had the franchise "a game from the bowl," and believed he could take the final step.
"And then all of a sudden they draft him, when I think we could have drafted other positions to make us better. But they drafted him. When you do that, bam, the whole world changed here. I tried not to change though, because that would show my weakness. Is it a slap in my face? Was it? Ahhh, maybe a little bit. But if that's a move they felt they had to do, then they've got to do it."
Jake never asked
Jake Plummer. (The Denver Post)for an explanation and never got one. I, however, did ask general manager Ted Sundquist and head coach Mike Shanahan why they drafted Cutler, knowing how it would play in town. They cited two main reasons: finding a replacement for Jake, whose mobility and durability would decline, and finding themselves in the position to obtain an elite quarterback who could play until 2020. Sundquist's rationale was the latter. Shanahan's was the former.
Jake had spent much of the off-season in Idaho, away from Denver and the "voluntary" workouts that teams nonetheless monitor obsessively and reward monetarily. Jake's 85 percent attendance mark was the lowest on the team. Shanahan interpreted that as a loss of interest, and wanted someone waiting in the wings.
"Jake is a guy that I could tell going into this year was not as enthused about the off-season program, working out, wanting to be away. He gave up 200 grand because he didn't hit his percentage. Well, when my quarterback is missing..." Shanahan pauses. "John Elway, he's in here 16 years, he's making those guys work because he wants one thing, and that's to win the Super Bowl."
Jake admits that he thinks more now about life after football. It's only natural. "When you get into your 10th year, some guys realize, 'Oh, god, I'm going to have to give this up soon,' and they can't live without it and they start going harder and harder. I love football. I love playing it. It's fun. Take it away, I've got a lot on my plate that
Jake Plummer. (The Denver Post)I can go do and want to go do and have been waiting to go do but can't because of the time commitment." Jake has two brothers with two kids each, a mother he talks to every day, a father in treatment for alcoholism. There are other sports and activities: handball, skiing, backpacking, mountain biking. He wants to raise a family.
For now, though, in camp, Jake is playing well. And Shanahan seems pleased. While Shanahan has praised Cutler, and promoted him to No. 2, publicly the coach has knocked down talk of a quick ascension to the starter's job. That hasn't stopped the speculation: Would the overthrow take place sometime this season? Next year? The year after?
Jake says he's not worried. Whether fans like it or not, whether his
Jake Plummer. (AP)accomplishments are ever enough for the city of Denver, he's the quarterback until further notice. "They have to put up with crusty-(expletive) old me for however long I can take it," he says. "Which means they have to put up with 13-win seasons. I think they can put up with it."
The 2006 season, however, doesn't go well. The Broncos start 7-2, but the offense struggles and, after consecutive losses, Shanahan benches Plummer for Cutler. After the Broncos lose the rookie's debut against Seattle, Plummer talks to the author.
At 8 a.m. three days after the game, I meet Jake in the Broncos' lunchroom. "Bad enough I got benched," he cracks. "Now I got this (expletive) guy wanting to interview me."
Since he was replaced, Jake has politely refused to speak to the media. He tells me he doesn't want to stir controversy or draw attention from Cutler, and also that he needs to remain cool in case Cutler fails or is hurt. But he is furious.
Jake acknowledges that, yes, he threw some interceptions early in the season and, yes, the offense hadn't performed especially well. But it wasn't exclusively his fault, he says. Key passing targets from last year were gone. There were the injuries. And the play-calling was tentative, especially when the Broncos had a lead. Yet the team still was in position to achieve the initial goal of every NFL franchise: to make the playoffs. "We're 7-4 and on the peak of a wild card and they made a move that" — Jake pauses — "was the wrong move to make."
Jake believes the coaches scapegoated him for the team's broader problems, and then fed or at least failed to head off rumors that his job was on the line. "That's not a way to live, that's not a way to play," he says. "But they created that." Jake tells me he learned from the media that he wouldn't start against Seattle.
I ask whether he'll play next season. He says he isn't sure, but he talks about his career mostly in the past tense. He talks about his time in Denver entirely in the past tense. Jake thinks that people-inside and outside the organization-will appreciate that he won a lot of games and helped restore the franchise's pride and winning tradition. But he is bitter about how he was treated this season by fans, the media and Shanahan, who told him again that missing off-season workouts indicated to him that Jake didn't care.
"Yeah, I missed some workouts. And you know what?" Jake lowers his head to the table and talks directly into my tape recorder. "Mike Shanahan, you can kiss my (expletive) for being pissed at that. You can quote that. I made 85 percent of my workouts and he's still mad about it. He still brought that up. Give me a break. That's the dumbest (expletive) thing on earth.
"He's got to have me to be his leader," Jake says sarcastically. "Well, listen. When I'm out there on a Thursday, when everyone's half-assing it and just going through the motions, I'm the one that was calling (expletive) out saying, 'Let's go.' No one else. Eighty-five percent workouts? Mad about that? And he's still mad about it? Well, if that's the reason (I was benched), then I'm glad I didn't make those. Because I don't want to be here every day in the off-season. You don't get any escape.
"But, hey, he felt like I crossed him in some way. Once you do that, he'll never let those things go. If you cross him in some way, he'll hold on to that more than the times you've done good by him."
Link (http://www.denverpost.com/broncos/ci_10440842)
This is an excerpt from the book that guy who was "kicking" wrote Jake's last season. If you read the end of the story it seems to me Jake had some serious attitude problems the last year he was here and it started in the offseason.
Take it for what it's worth.
Editor's note: In 2006, sportswriter Stefan Fatsis joined the Broncos as a placekicker during training camp. In this excerpt from his new book, "A Few Seconds of Panic: A 5-foot-8, 170-pound, 43-year-old Sportswriter Plays in the NFL," Fatsis talks with quarterback Jake Plummer before and after he was replaced by rookie Jay Cutler.
Jake has no regrets about coming to Denver, despite the criticism he has faced about his playing style, his statistics and, now, his "failure" to win the big game — the 2005 AFC Championship Game against Pittsburgh. "It was a good decision. A big-time place to come," he says. "And they were hungry. I brought in an attitude that was not like the one they had here."
But after completing their best season since John Elway, and Jake's best season as a pro, the Broncos scaled the draft ladder to pick a quarterback. Jake was in his unwinterized, 2,000-square-foot cabin in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, unreachable. "I'm sure they knew not to try to call me, because I would have said, 'Do whatever the hell you want to do,' " he says.
Still, it bugged him, the way the business of football naturally bugs players, no matter how much money they've made or how successful they've been. Jake understood that teams do as they please, and that winning teams like the Broncos don't often get to select high in the draft. But Jake had the franchise "a game from the bowl," and believed he could take the final step.
"And then all of a sudden they draft him, when I think we could have drafted other positions to make us better. But they drafted him. When you do that, bam, the whole world changed here. I tried not to change though, because that would show my weakness. Is it a slap in my face? Was it? Ahhh, maybe a little bit. But if that's a move they felt they had to do, then they've got to do it."
Jake never asked
Jake Plummer. (The Denver Post)for an explanation and never got one. I, however, did ask general manager Ted Sundquist and head coach Mike Shanahan why they drafted Cutler, knowing how it would play in town. They cited two main reasons: finding a replacement for Jake, whose mobility and durability would decline, and finding themselves in the position to obtain an elite quarterback who could play until 2020. Sundquist's rationale was the latter. Shanahan's was the former.
Jake had spent much of the off-season in Idaho, away from Denver and the "voluntary" workouts that teams nonetheless monitor obsessively and reward monetarily. Jake's 85 percent attendance mark was the lowest on the team. Shanahan interpreted that as a loss of interest, and wanted someone waiting in the wings.
"Jake is a guy that I could tell going into this year was not as enthused about the off-season program, working out, wanting to be away. He gave up 200 grand because he didn't hit his percentage. Well, when my quarterback is missing..." Shanahan pauses. "John Elway, he's in here 16 years, he's making those guys work because he wants one thing, and that's to win the Super Bowl."
Jake admits that he thinks more now about life after football. It's only natural. "When you get into your 10th year, some guys realize, 'Oh, god, I'm going to have to give this up soon,' and they can't live without it and they start going harder and harder. I love football. I love playing it. It's fun. Take it away, I've got a lot on my plate that
Jake Plummer. (The Denver Post)I can go do and want to go do and have been waiting to go do but can't because of the time commitment." Jake has two brothers with two kids each, a mother he talks to every day, a father in treatment for alcoholism. There are other sports and activities: handball, skiing, backpacking, mountain biking. He wants to raise a family.
For now, though, in camp, Jake is playing well. And Shanahan seems pleased. While Shanahan has praised Cutler, and promoted him to No. 2, publicly the coach has knocked down talk of a quick ascension to the starter's job. That hasn't stopped the speculation: Would the overthrow take place sometime this season? Next year? The year after?
Jake says he's not worried. Whether fans like it or not, whether his
Jake Plummer. (AP)accomplishments are ever enough for the city of Denver, he's the quarterback until further notice. "They have to put up with crusty-(expletive) old me for however long I can take it," he says. "Which means they have to put up with 13-win seasons. I think they can put up with it."
The 2006 season, however, doesn't go well. The Broncos start 7-2, but the offense struggles and, after consecutive losses, Shanahan benches Plummer for Cutler. After the Broncos lose the rookie's debut against Seattle, Plummer talks to the author.
At 8 a.m. three days after the game, I meet Jake in the Broncos' lunchroom. "Bad enough I got benched," he cracks. "Now I got this (expletive) guy wanting to interview me."
Since he was replaced, Jake has politely refused to speak to the media. He tells me he doesn't want to stir controversy or draw attention from Cutler, and also that he needs to remain cool in case Cutler fails or is hurt. But he is furious.
Jake acknowledges that, yes, he threw some interceptions early in the season and, yes, the offense hadn't performed especially well. But it wasn't exclusively his fault, he says. Key passing targets from last year were gone. There were the injuries. And the play-calling was tentative, especially when the Broncos had a lead. Yet the team still was in position to achieve the initial goal of every NFL franchise: to make the playoffs. "We're 7-4 and on the peak of a wild card and they made a move that" — Jake pauses — "was the wrong move to make."
Jake believes the coaches scapegoated him for the team's broader problems, and then fed or at least failed to head off rumors that his job was on the line. "That's not a way to live, that's not a way to play," he says. "But they created that." Jake tells me he learned from the media that he wouldn't start against Seattle.
I ask whether he'll play next season. He says he isn't sure, but he talks about his career mostly in the past tense. He talks about his time in Denver entirely in the past tense. Jake thinks that people-inside and outside the organization-will appreciate that he won a lot of games and helped restore the franchise's pride and winning tradition. But he is bitter about how he was treated this season by fans, the media and Shanahan, who told him again that missing off-season workouts indicated to him that Jake didn't care.
"Yeah, I missed some workouts. And you know what?" Jake lowers his head to the table and talks directly into my tape recorder. "Mike Shanahan, you can kiss my (expletive) for being pissed at that. You can quote that. I made 85 percent of my workouts and he's still mad about it. He still brought that up. Give me a break. That's the dumbest (expletive) thing on earth.
"He's got to have me to be his leader," Jake says sarcastically. "Well, listen. When I'm out there on a Thursday, when everyone's half-assing it and just going through the motions, I'm the one that was calling (expletive) out saying, 'Let's go.' No one else. Eighty-five percent workouts? Mad about that? And he's still mad about it? Well, if that's the reason (I was benched), then I'm glad I didn't make those. Because I don't want to be here every day in the off-season. You don't get any escape.
"But, hey, he felt like I crossed him in some way. Once you do that, he'll never let those things go. If you cross him in some way, he'll hold on to that more than the times you've done good by him."
Link (http://www.denverpost.com/broncos/ci_10440842)