After 10 Years in the NFL, Jake Plummer Has a New Pastime — Mushroom Farming

It stems from his work with mushroom supplements

Jake Plummer, 2000
Jake Plummer of the Arizona Cardinals scrambles with the ball against the New York Giants during an NFL football game September 3, 2000 at Giants Stadium.
Getty Images

There are a number of former NFL players who have had intriguing second acts in their lives — including some who have gone on to write fiction or create comic books. Jake Plummer, who spent 10 seasons as an NFL quarterback for the likes of the Cardinals and Broncos and was an All-American before that during his time at Arizona State, has also taken the proverbial road less traveled, but in his case, it’s led to a mushroom farm.

As Yahoo! Sports recently reported, Plummer spoke with USA Today about his new career. According to the article, Plummer’s path to farming came through something we’re all more familiar with now than we were two years ago: supply chain issues.

Plummer is one of the founders of Umbo, a company that sells products made from functional mushrooms. During the pandemic, Umbo hit a snag due to problems with its supply chain, which led Plummer to look into what his options were in terms of farming mushrooms directly.

This, in turn, led to Plummer becoming one of the co-founders of Mycolove Farm, situated in Fort Lupton, Colorado. According to the farm’s website, Mycolove is “a full-scale medicinal and culinary mushroom farm,” and its founders have backgrounds on both sides of that divide.

“This is past the experimental stage,” Plummer told USA Today. “We experimented for a few months and now we know we can do it.” With mushroom supplements becoming more popular in recent years, it’s not hard to see the appeal.

Win the Ultimate Formula 1® Crypto.com Miami Grand Prix Experience

Want the F1 experience of a lifetime? Here’s your chance to win tickets to see Turn 18 Grandstand, one of Ultimate Formula 1® Crypto.com Miami Grand Prix’s most premier grandstands!