Jake takes his first step on the coaching ladder

Explained below.

According to the news wires, Jake Plummer is going to be the new quarterbacks coach at Sandpoint High in Idaho. Congratulations to Jake and also to Sandpoint High, naturally. Also, congrats to Jake for helping raise over $10,000 for the DayBreak Center (see our last posting.)

So why is Justin flipping the bird? Why, he's flipping it at Examiner.com's Broncos yapper Greg Henry (okay, Justin's not really, but we are), who has reacted to this Plummer news with lazy witticisms. Quoth:

"Views: We're guessing Idaho doesn't get much news about Plummer's antics. His sideline flipping the bird at Broncos fans, berating a local columnist with a 9 p.m. phone call at her home, leaving his fiance at the altar in Hawaii, his general disdain for personal hygiene ...

We're guessing the folks in Idaho like the lumberjack look -- scruffy beard, plaid shirt, stocking cap and uncombed hair. We also think it's a good deal for Plummer; a part-time coaching job so he can keep up his illustrious racquetball career.

All we can say is good luck to those high school kids in Idaho. Let's hope Plummer is a better role model and teacher in Sandpoint than he ever was in Denver."

Let's hope you get a paper cut, Greg. Let's see...flipping the bird? Five years ago. The phone call? Truthfully, we don't remember that. We're sure it was a while back. Leaving his fiance? It sounds harsh, and maybe his timing was a little off, but better to call off a wedding BEFORE you get married than fake your way through it and try to live with someone you don't want to live with. Unless you're one of those hardline religious types who would rather see two people torture each other in matrimony. His lack of personal hygiene? I'm sorry, I don't recall any news of Jake skipping showers when he had his glorious beard. I don't see anyone berating Jesus or Moses for their lack of hygiene. And those Hasidic Jews must be REALLY dirty, right?

And we'd like to say going after his "illustrious racquetball career" is a pretty low blow, but we guess "racquetball player" must be far, far below the title of "Denver Broncos Examiner" on the sign-up sheet on Career Day. It's too bad Jake isn't wealthy or anything from that NFL career and can't pick something to do he actually likes.

Jake will be a better role model for Sandpoint than he was in Denver because Jake like any sane person realizes that in the NFL, he wasn't a ROLE MODEL, he was a SPORTS IDOL--just like every other player. People wanting athletes to be role models are insane. If athletes volunteer to be all-around neato people, sure, let them be role models--in their spare time. Otherwise, it's a parent's job to point out that most people who play childrens' games for a living are NOT to be emulated. Famous athletes are idolized for their play, their pay, and their fame. How can a kid truly model himself after someone based purely on news blurbs and on-field accomplishments? There's no personal connection, nor should there be because athletes like anyone else have personal private lives that shouldn't really be anyone's concern beyond what they want the public to know. As a SPORTS IDOL, maybe Jake fell short because he understood the hypocrisy and flat-out bullshit involved in spinning idolatry as being a "role model" and refused to buy into it.

But as a high school coach, Jake the Snake is now specifically a ROLE MODEL. This is a position he has fully accepted. Jake Plummer turns 35 this year, is far removed from the smoke and mirrors of the NFL and is by all accounts a family man who has settled disturbingly well into a non-NFL existence. I think he'll manage to avoid flipping off his players or convincing a kid to grow a beard--like that would matter anyway.

Either people grow up or they don't. Jake's grown up. If all "journalists" want to do is take potshots at positive acts--like a Pro Bowl QB offering his experience to kids who would otherwise be learning from math teachers and guys who never played past high school--then maybe we should all pray that Pacman Jones, Matt Jones, Michael Vick and Plaxico Buress end up in Broncos blue-and-orange so that we can read some nice complimentary articles for a change.

Not that we regularly read the Examiner or recommend doing so. It's just what came up when we Googled "Jake Plummer News." Sadly, this makes them a valued source.

Anyway, good luck to Sandpoint High as they...

LET PLUMMER COACH!!!

P.S. According to what we've heard, Pumpkin Pie (Jay Cutler for the uninformed) has reached out to Plaxico Buress and is trying to get the Bears interested in signing the ex-Giant who doesn't know how to use the safety on a gun. Good for you. Pumpkin Pie. We know you get along really well with immature dimwit receivers.

The Snake Also Gives

Gotta love that shirt.

Jake update!

Is Jake Plummer un-retiring and returning to make the NFL a fun place again?

Well...no. However, Jake will be doing something a little more constructive in Sandpoint, Idaho on April 11th. Jake and former Packers All-Pro Jerry Kramer will be raising money at the Sandpoint Senior Center to benefit the DayBreak Center for elderly Alzheimer's Patients and also to raise money for local high school athletics. Jake and Jerry have donated signed items for auction among other things, and there's dinner thrown in to boot. Only $25 to get in with the money going to two worthy causes. And you'll get to meet Jake! If we were in Idaho, we would totally go meet Jake and probably get thrown out of the event for being annoying. One of us had a chance to go ambush him at a handball tournament in California a while back but fate was not on our side that weekend.

Anyway, it's nice to see Jake giving back to the community, even if it's not our community. If we ran into him, we would probably ask an inappropriate and silly question about the whole Cutler fiasco...but even if he got annoyed, we'd probably get an honest answer. Idaho, however, is far.

In other Plummer tidbits, Greg Henry of the Denver Broncos examiner had the audacity (sort of) to loosely compare Jake Plummer with Kyle Orton. Hmm, why would that be? Oh, yeah the beard thing. Thankfully Mr. Henry (no relation to Travis) did not expand on this comparison and thereby sully Jake's reputation. Furthermore, the fact that the beard exists means little. True, it's cool that Orton has sported the beard--and we wish him to do so in 2009 and beyond--however comparing Orton's "too lazy to shave" beard to Jake's glorious hairy visage is literally like comparing...

this guy

to

this guy

...and to be frank, any logical person will tell you that comparing Orton to Plummer in pretty much any category gives you the same result.

Anyway, raise that money, Jake!

LET PLUMMER GIVE!!!

Jay Cutler is a Bear. Seriously.

Sure it was possible. We still didn't think it would be the freakin' Bears.

Once again, we come to the end of a very short era in Denver Broncos quarterback history. Jay Cutler, our oft-maligned, sometimes beloved Pumpkin Pie, is gone baby gone.

Jay Cutler was traded to the Bears this afternoon along with a fifth-round pick for occasional Bears starter Kyle Orton (he of the magnificent neckbeard) a third round pick in 2008, and the Bears' two first rounders in 2009 and 2010.

PUMPKIN PIE IS GONE.

We here at LPP haven't let this one settle yet, but let's break it down:

-We've been saying lately that we'd follow Pumpkin Pie wherever he may go and support his new team fully. At that time, we didn't really think that destination would be Chicago. While Jay Cutler is instantly our all-time favorite Chicago Bears player (replacing, um...Jim McMahon? Walter Payton? Ditka? Brian Griese?) We've never given more than a passing fart about Chicago and don't look to start now. Check back in a month or two.

-As much as we've felt that the Broncos and Josh McDaniels looked like idiots for mishandling Cutler's ego, this deal makes mild sense because while Orton isn't a great QB, B-Marsh, Eddie Royal, and Tony Scheffler are about to at least make him look like a decent QB and those draft picks...well, the Bears look like a middle-of-the-road team with or without Jay, so picking around #15 two years in a row is a heck of a deal. Can't wait for one of those picks to be used to select the next QB who gets to follow Jay, Jake Plummer, and Brian Griese as the star of Denver's ongoing reality series "I'M NOT JOHN ELWAY...GET ME OUT OF HERE!!!"

-Congratulations on getting Orton by the way, Plummer haters and Cutler turncoats. In 6 years, Denver has gone from Brian Griese to a guy who occasionally couldn't beat out Brian Griese. Good luck with that, since all you Elway worshippers were so kind to Griese while you were chanting "WE WANT PLUMMER" back in 2002.

-How could we have been so right? Our words, 2007: "Can’t you just picture Pumpkin Pie getting run out of town Griese- or Plummer-style in 3 years and then catching on to another team that will probably know how to use him?" The Bears may not be that team, but Cutler gets to hand-pick his next city, doesn't he?

The city of Denver still expects Elway every time the ball is snapped. Many will cry: "We have the right to expect greatness! Don't we get to hope that someone will live up to Elway's standard?" Of course you do. But the kind of Broncos fan we DON'T like is the one who arbitraily decides that "THIS KID" (Griese '99, Jake '02, Jay '06) is going to be the savior, at which time "THAT GUY" (Bubby Brister '99, Griese '02, Jake '06 and now Jay '09) is considered tainted goods that need to be disposed of before they can taint the new Elway 2.0.

Well you get what you ask for, Denver fans. Suddenly Jay Cutler wasn't the sweet little Pumpkin Pie you expected, who kept his mouth shut, kissed babies, thanked Jesus, and aw-shucksed his way into the heart of the city like a certain #7 did. Did Elway win more games? Sure. He also had a coach who understood what a f***ing defense was without needing flash cards and a copy of "NFL Defense for Dummies, and when he didn't he at least had the best teammates that illegal salary cap violations could buy.

Jay Cutler is no John Elway. Fine. That's fair. But like Jake and Griese before him, he wasn't given a fair chance to prove that Denver didn't NEED a John Elway to succeed in the 21st century. With Shanahan's archaic offenses and non-existent defenses out of the picture, it was time for Jay Cutler to get an offense and defense built from the ground up by a new coach with new ideas.

Well, forget that.

Now Jay's in Chicago and the Broncos get a wonderful choice at QB...do they play Kyle Orton, who often wasn't good enough to beat out Brian Griese--the first guy they ran out of town? Or do they play Chris Simms, who inspired so little confidence in Tampa Bay that the Fake Raiders tried to acquire Jake Plummer--the second guy they ran out of town? Oooooh, it's so hard to choose!

It's been a rough ride for Broncos fans these past few years, but we're going to go ahead and say that a lot of this ill will falls squarely on the shoulders of the fans, especially in the internet age where the world will damn well know how every single person with an internet connection feels about EVERYTHING. You wanted Griese? You got him. You wanted Jake? You got him. You wanted Cutler? You got him. Well what the hell did you want this time Denver? Whatever it is, you've got it.

What this all boils down to is that the Broncos should have...

LET PLUMMER PLAY!!!

This is not an April Fools Joke...

We here at LPP have taken our official stand: F U!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! JOSH MCDANIELS....

We don't think this comic from Espn.com is very funny, but it kinda is in a way...And if you didn't hear us, we say F U!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! JOSH MCDANIELS, you're a real ass!

Pumpkin Pie Wants Out

"Thanks for nothing, dickweeds."

Well, there it is. Jay Cutler is asking to be traded.

It's becoming apparent that this is now an organizational failure--and here we thought it was just Shanahan. The Broncos are now in danger of becoming the Raiders of the Rockies.

Maybe Jay overreacted to the trade attempts. After all, this is a business and players are just highly paid contract employees when you get right down to it. However, the Broncos organization--starting with the new coach and up to ownership--just dropped the ball altogether with their "quarterback of the future" going all the way back to the initial QB controversy with Jake "The Snake" Plummer in 2006. Right then and there Jay Cutler learned that a quarterback's success didn't mean a damn thing if the head coach got a hair up his butt over a short stretch. Shanahan saw the Broncos struggling and replaced Jake Plummer despite the highest winning percentage of any QB in Broncos history. Cutler may have been happy to step in and play right away, but he surely memorized how the Broncos organization pulled the rug out from under Plummer. Within mere weeks, Jake went from the second-best quarterback in Broncos history to scorned splinter jockey and there's no way that Jay Cutler isn't imagining the same scenario materializing around him.

So what is it, Denver? Jake gave you wins, but apparently that wasn't enough--you (and I mean the team AND all the fans who bashed Jake) wanted big numbers. So here comes Jay, who puts up big numbers, but now we don't have as many wins. You get what you ask for, Broncos fans.

We don't blame Jay for not getting to the playoffs--the team around him has more holes than Hot Shots Golf. We don't blame Jake for not putting up big numbers--that wasn't his style and he got wins, not to mention Jake's rosters were far, far, far from being the Elway Juggernauts of the late 90's.

Something insane has happened here at LPP. We're actually siding with Jay Cutler here, and it's not against the coach or replacement QB, like it was with Jake. This kind of shitty treatment is actually putting us at odds with THE TEAM. It's a weird feeling. Many of our fellow fans might say "Good. We don't need you. F off." We feel the sorriest for you poor suckers. You don't own a piece of the Broncos, you don't get raises at work if they finish over .500, and you don't get rings if they win the Super Bowl. This ain't Green Bay. The Broncos, beloved as they are, are a product, and we have the right to be dissatisfied with the product. If Coke changes the formula, you switch to Pepsi. If the Broncos decide they no longer want to be a class organization dedicated to winning, we may go find one that is--or at least one that may be in a short time. We won't be jumping on a Steelers or Giants bandwagon, thanks much.

Ahh, Jay Cutler. We've come so far from the days of tossing insults your way (well, LPP himself is still a bit of an asshole, but...) We've got your back, Pumpkin Pie. Jake is still #1 in our hearts, but if the Broncos are going to treat yet another quarterback like shit because he's not John Elway (or incredibly enough, NOT MATT CASSEL? JESUS CHRIST!) we are going to champion that QB's cause.

You've fallen victim to the Curse of Elway. We support all who fall under that sickly, stupid plague. Whatever has happened in the past is the past. Where you go, we follow, Jay. Even if the site remains...

LET PLUMMER PLAY!!!

Do You Think Jay Is Sick Of Denver?

Artist's depiction.

Lest we think that Jay Cutler is starting to calm down about the recent trade talk fiasco, ESPN is reporting that Jay just put up his $2 million Colorado Pumpkin Palace for sale. No big deal, you say? Well, his parents have a house a few minutes up the road, and they're selling too!

Thanks a lot, Broncos. You've found a new way to run a quarterback out of town. It figures that once we accepted Jake's retirement and tried to get behind Jay that something like this would go down.

JOHN ELWAY IS NOT WALKING THROUGH THAT DOOR. ACCEPT IT AND DEAL WITH IT, BRONCOS.

Maybe the next time they have a QB who puts together a franchise-best career winning percentage--or a QB who puts up good numbers despite being young and "supported" by a terrible, terrible offensive line and non-existent defense--the Broncos won't point fingers and try fix one of the pieces that isn't broken after a failed season. But this theory assumes that the Broncos are truly capable of learning from mistakes, and their recent track record is pretty spotty, including the fact that they didn't...

LET PLUMMER PLAY!!!

They Just Don't Wanna

Cheer up, Jay. At least you aren't a Viking. Yet.

We've figured it out, Denver fans. Don't say we didn't tell you so later on. We have figured out a dirty, dirty secret about the Broncos organization that you won't want to hear. We thought maybe with the firing of Shanahan that this secret might not be true after all, but we can't deny it any longer. Ready? Here it is.

THE DENVER BRONCOS DO NOT WANT TO WIN.

Just to clarify, by that we mean: they do not want to win games, they do not want to be good, and quite possibly they do not want to be a respectable NFL franchise.

Some of us here at LetPlummerPlay.com have been very critical of Pumpkin Pie, in fact downright scornful at times. However there is no denying this: Jay Cutler is no worse than the seventh-best QB in the game o' foosball and possibly better. Whom would you rather have? Whom is more or at least equally successful? In case you haven't thought about it, we'll give you three short lists in no particular order:

1. CLEARLY BETTER (than Jay)
Peyton Manning
Tom Brady
Drew Brees

2. MORE PROVEN
Ben Roethlisberger
Eli Manning
Kurt Warner
Donovan McNabb
Philip Rivers

3. CUTLER'S BALLPARK
Chad Pennington
Tony Romo
Aaron Rodgers
Jeff Garcia

These are kind of "trade scenario" lists. Let's be honest, unless you threw in several picks and another Pro Bowler, no one on the first list would ever be traded for Jay Cutler.

When you get to the second list, it depends on the winds of change. Eli and Ben would never be traded because of team chemistry and recent successes, however, Warner and McNabb are more feasible because of age and could be swapped under the right conditions--however a trade demand would have to come out of one of those guys for it to actually happen. Rivers just had a breakout year and won a playoff game with an 8-8 team, so he's not going anywhere, but he's not exactly Joe Montana just yet. We almost put him in Cutler's ballpark, but he really did have a much better season.

Finally, you have "Cutler's Ballpark." These are guys who really are about where Jay is developmentally, in some form or another. Romo has a high-powered system built around him but can't get over the top. Pennington has a live arm and smarts, but is more consistent than talented--and occasionally, that's a better attribute. Jeff Garcia is a winner, but old. Aaron Rodgers is pretty much Green Bay Jay. You could possibly trade Cutler for one of these guys, but it would be pointless and not improve either team barring chemistry issues.

You'll notice Matt Cassel does not appear on any of those lists. He's on this one:

4. MILDLY ABOVE AVERAGE:
Matt Cassel
David Garrard
Jake Delhomme
Matt Ryan

If you really want to make a top ten list with trade value as a factor for 2009, where's the Pie? Let's just throw together a quickie and say he's not top three. Who fills the rest of the list?

Ben's won 2 Super Bowls. Numbers aside, you cannot discount that fact. Let's call Roethlisberger #4. Eli's Super Bowl was 2 years ago with a defensive team...he's not #5. Rivers may be #5 so we'll put him there and Eli at #6 because, well, that Super Bowl was only 2 years ago. So now we dip into Cutler's Ballpark. Tony Romo is not, as yet, a winner. Powerhouse teams, no results. We refuse to call him #7. Pennington is a control QB, not a clear #7. Jeff Garcia is older and has obviously never cemented a single team's confidence. That leaves the 7 spot between Cutler and Rodgers. We'll give Cutler the edge because he put up results without getting to study a consistent Hall of Fame QB with the same offense for three years.

So Jay Cutler is at least the 7th best QB in the league up through the year 2008. That means we consider him better than the other 22 starting QBs in the NFL plus their 40+ backups. The #7 slot comes with a catch: Warner may drop out of the top ten as soon as this year and McNabb isn't far behind. Brady's coming off of injury. Peyton is getting older. Ben and Eli may have powerful teams around them, but neither one is guaranteed to put up big numbers consistently. The opportunity for Jay to jump into the top five is obvious. It would seem that unless some strange occurence, uh, occurs, Jay Cutler should be a top five quarterback within maybe a year if not less. So the question is:

WHY WOULD YOU EVEN ENTERTAIN THE IDEA OF TRADING A TOP FIVE QUARTERBACK FOR *NOT* A TOP FIVE QUARTERBACK?

The answer is obvious.

THE DENVER BRONCOS DO NOT WANT TO WIN.

Because even if you (Josh McDaniels--whom we still have hopes for, but they're fading) fail in your attempt to bring in an inferior quarterback, you still manage to piss off the quarterback you tried to trade who just happens to be the centerpiece of your team and one of the few Broncos who has visibly given a shit about winning.

It's a sad day for Broncos fans, but it's not surprising. Not surprising at all from the team that wouldn't...

LET PLUMMER PLAY!!!