Jake Plummer had a bit of a topsy-turvy NFL career, but I liked the guy because he had a mustache.  Mustaches rule. And, it takes guts to wear that kind of facial hair for men under 40 these days and not do it to be ironic, or as a competition for some cancer society.

Some people questioned his retirement last year because he definitely had some years left. But hey: he was sick of hurting and sick of the grind. Sure he was Living The Dream, but it wasn’t his dream any longer. I respect that.

I also respect now that he’s back in his home state of Idaho … he’s turned into a handball machine.

Playing several times a week, Jake has lost 20 pounds from his NFL days and is in, he says, the best shape of his life. He can drop to one knee and jump back up or move his lanky 6-foot-2 frame with surprising speed and agility. His constant arm and back pain of the last decade is gone. He can run, bike and hike, or, as he demonstrated over a Halloween weekend handball tournament at a local health club, somersault, nose-dive and swat at handball shots from his left or his right side.

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Though he hopes to establish an annual tradition, Jake says his larger goal is to popularize youth handball nationwide while encouraging teen athletes not to focus too intensely on a single sport. “My ultimate goal is to get coaches to stop specializing their athletes, telling them they can’t play other sports because it’ll hurt their football,” Plummer says. “I played all three sports and handball whenever I could. That’s why I made it in the NFL — that rounded me out as an athlete.”

Good on ya, Jake. May the blue ball always bounce your way.