How can any aspiring sports journalist not envy the Arizona Republic’s Bob Young, who landed the plum assignment of catching up with former Cardinals/Broncos QB Jake Plummer, who participated in The Simple Green U.S. Open of Handball. “I’ll be playing until I die” promised the Pseudo Snake, a pledge most football fans pray he keeps.

The Buccaneers still hold Plummer’s rights, but he sure doesn’t seem like he has a change of heart is in his future.

“There are so many tournaments around, you can pretty much play every weekend,” he said.

Still bearded and wearing a sock as a headband, Plummer teamed with Eric, 35, in the Pro Doubles division at the U.S. Open.

They were beaten 21-7, 21-10 in the first round of the single-elimination tournament by the second-seeded team of John Bike and Danny Bell.

“He’s actually doing very well as a player,” said Jeff Gryknewich, marketing director for the Tucson-based U.S. Handball Association. “This was his first really big tournament match, and they were competitive. He actually shows a lot of potential. And we’ve had national champions in their 30s and 40s, so he’s still young in this sport.

Plummer said he also hopes that lending his name to the sport will expose kids to it and grow the game. That’s why he agreed to do an interview – on handball.

“I don’t recall reading too many articles about handball in many papers,” he said. “There are a lot of really good handball players who have put a lot more into the sport than I have, but I think they appreciate that I’m lending my name to it and playing.

“Maybe some kids will look at it and say, ‘Jake Plummer played football, and now he’s playing handball. That’s pretty cool.’ That’s what I’m hoping.”

Indeed, with possible exceptions of Dale Murphy, what professional sportsman, active or retired, wields the same sort of influence amongst children?