Having once used my Heisman vote for Jake Plummer, I count myself among those Plummer has let down, a list that now must include an impatient Bronco Nation.

This is speaking only in terms of athletic achievement, for however admirable Plummer may be in other ways, whatever noble or foolish path he may take from here, that is more his business and less of ours.

The judgment of Plummer's four years among us must reach only as far as how good a quarterback he was, how effective a leader, how good a player, how worthy a distraction, and only in that last one does he exceed the model.

Pretty ordinary otherwise and more's the pity here at the end, he is not even the rebel he offered himself as.

Plummer is, pending developments, a quitter, his choice certainly, and who may not wish to be able to do the same, if finances, prospects or sheer apathy would allow?

We can accept that in ourselves but not in our heroes.

We want to believe like the poet that a man's reach should exceed his grasp. Plummer, it does seem, has reached as far as he can. Or as far as he wishes to.

Oh, I suppose that turning down so much easy money, so handy a fresh opportunity, has its admirers, if Plummer's walking away sticks, and we shall see if it does.

There is an anti-establishment nose-thumbing there, telling the man to stuff it. But if Plummer could not afford to do it, or if he had achieved something lasting, had failed grandly instead of consistently, it would carry more worth.

And if it did not look so much like giving up when it would take work and devotion to get back, then applause all around.

What it really looks like is Plummer has had enough, when he has always had too little.

Assuming this is all there is, there will be no title, no legacy, no clarity to a career except that it could have been more.

This is not a final straw. There is no final straw. There is not even a semifinal straw, considering that Plummer lost that game to the Steelers.

This is simply refusing the challenge, and worse than that, it is contradicting the soul of competition, denying what there is about sports that appeals so much, not to give up, give in or give away any chance to be all that you can be.

Or is that the Army? Well, close enough to move the chains.

The gallant notion of a warrior leaving on his shield is full of flaws - not the least of which is while the cheers of paying fans may pour down on the poor soul, behind the applause is the relief that it is him and not them - but it does feed the myth, and without myths, sports is just sweating and grunting.

The cliché of doing whatever is necessary for the team, for the game, for the championship ring, ties the fearful in the crowd to the fearless on the field.

To have to consider that those proxy heroes are no better and maybe worse is to break the bond that makes the whole thing work.

Incompetence, folly, lack of talent, hard, dumb luck, these can be forgiven. Giving up cannot.

As a famous and doomed basketball coach once told the world, it is always too soon to quit.

Not only is Plummer crying "uncle," he is crying nephews, nieces and in-laws as well.

Those of us who thought we saw early more than was there in Plummer, who saw more in him than in Peyton Manning, who got my '96 Heisman vote for second place, still never expected there to be that much less.

Retirements have a certain form, generally tears, occasionally defiance, always regret. Plummer's retirement does not even have noise.

It is made in the silent world of speculation, or in other people's voices.

What duty any athlete has to the fans who have supported him is merely to leave the impression that it was as important to him as it was to them.

It does not have to be true, but it is a cheap debt to pay.

lincicomeb@RockyMountainNews.com

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