Plummer Leads Arizona Out of NFL Wasteland

Bill Walsh calls him the next Joe Montana. Deion Sanders says he’s a young Fran Tarkenton. The Arizona Cardinals see him as their savior.

No rocket arm. No imposing physique. Absolutely no flamboyant personality. Yet no young quarterback comes close to the heart-thumping excitement Jake Plummer has created in just two NFL seasons.

“He can be a great quarterback in this league for years to come,” fullback Larry Centers said. “Kind of like Larry Bird used to do, he makes everybody a part of the situation and elevates our level of play.”

Barely 24, Plummer has led the Cardinals into the playoffs for the first time in 16 years and to their first playoff victory in more than a half-century. Suddenly, a desert metropolis is enjoying Cardinal-mania after dismissing the team as a loser for 11 years.

It’s not just that Plummer helped put the Cardinals in the NFC semifinals against the mighty Minnesota Vikings today, it’s the way he did it. Nine times in his 26 starts--seven times this season--Plummer has brought Arizona back from a tie or deficit in the fourth quarter to win.

The Cardinals had to win the last three games of the regular season to make the playoffs, and they won all three on last-second field goals.

“I don’t think it has anything to do with magic. I don’t have a wand out there with me or anything,” said Plummer, who was also a star at Arizona State. “I’m just out there trying to win a game.”

The Cardinals expect to win plenty in the years to come.

“It’s going to be hard for us to screw this up,” said Bob Ferguson, vice president for player personnel.

Arizona has eight picks in this year’s draft, and probably will have a couple more as compensation for players who move elsewhere. Two of them are in the first round, Nos. 8 and 21, thanks to the trade with San Diego last season that gave the Chargers Ryan Leaf and left Arizona with Andre Wadsworth and a pile of draft picks.

The Cardinals must sign new contracts with linebacker Jamir Miller and wide receiver Rob Moore. But considering the four-year, $29.7 million deal Plummer just got, including an NFL record $15 million signing bonus, money no longer seems to be a problem for the team.

Owner Bill Bidwill, long considered a grumpy tightwad, is now a lovable, ice cream-eating eccentric. He has even been spotted smiling on the sideline.

And the undisputed star of it all is the guy Ferguson calls “the skinny kid from Idaho who played at Arizona State.”

Plummer shrugs it all off.

“I just want to be a laid-back guy who has fun out here, who acts like a kid who’s 24 years old but has a pretty important position,” he said.

The Cardinals have placed their future on the shoulders of the 6-foot-2, 197-pound Plummer, and not just on the field. The team’s success this season could have a big impact on the vote, tentatively set for May, on whether to build a domed stadium in suburban Mesa.

“What did Joe Montana mean to the San Francisco franchise when they were turning it around in the early ‘80s?” Ferguson asked. “What’s Brett Favre meant for Green Bay?”

Off the field, Plummer fades into the background.

“He wears jeans and T-shirts and has a backpack,” Ferguson said.

But his easygoing personality masks a confidence that has infected everyone around him.

“He’s quiet, soft-spoken,” coach Vince Tobin said, “but you can feel an inner strength within him that he knows he’s capable of making plays.”

Plummer was a hero in Arizona long before he put on a Cardinals uniform. He was the star quarterback for an Arizona State team that went 11-0 before losing to Ohio State in the Rose Bowl.

The Cardinals took him in the second round of the 1997 draft.

“People questioned his arm strength. I did, too, at one time,” Ferguson said. “He’s just so skinny. But I really loved the way he played--the flair, the heart, things you can’t measure. There was a special quality about him. What he has as a quarterback is something only the great ones have.”

Plummer didn’t play until seven games into his rookie season. With the Cardinals at their own 2 in Philadelphia, he trotted into the huddle and told his teammates they were going to score. Then he took them 98 yards for the go-ahead touchdown.

Plummer started the last nine games in 1997, and big things were predicted for his sophomore year. His teammates even elected him captain.

But he struggled with the West Coast offense installed by Marc Trestman, the new offensive coordinator.

After Plummer had two interceptions returned for touchdowns in a blowout loss in Seattle, then had three picked off in a home loss to Oakland, columnists and callers to radio talk shows wanted him benched. At 3-4, the Cardinals had a welcome week off.

When play resumed, Jake the Snake was his old scrambling self, especially thriving when the Cardinals went to a no-huddle offense that created the kind of football anarchy that brings out his best.

“I really learned to just go out and play,” he said. “It was just a matter of staying patient and not getting uptight and not getting down, going through the little bit of growing pains I had to go through.”

The team finished 9-7, then pulled off the stunning playoff win in Dallas last Saturday.

In leading the Cardinals to their first winning season since they moved from St. Louis in 1988, Plummer threw for 3,737 yards, more than Favre, Troy Aikman, John Elway and, yes, Montana, in their second NFL seasons.

Plummer threw 17 touchdown passes but was intercepted 20 times, often on passes when he should have thrown it away or taken a sack.

“He’s still 24 years old in the second year of his career and the first year of a new offense,” Trestman said.

But he marvels at how his quarterback affects everybody around him.

“He’s a very special guy. I’m very lucky to be around him, believe me.”

All of the Cardinals agree.

“I’m sure he’s surprising a lot of guys and surprising his teammates and his fans, but he has the potential to be all-world,” wide receiver Frank Sanders said. “Jake’s hungry, and he’s receiving good instruction at a young age, so the sky’s the limit.”