Jake Plummer on How Mushrooms Can Heal The World & His 10-Year NFL Career | Full Ep | ALL THE SMOKE

Arizona Cardinals and the Denver Broncos. I'm here today in Fort Lupton, Colorado at a little spot I helped get started with some dear friends of mine called Mico Love Farm, where we're growing really amazing organisms in the world of fun guy, and I'm here to just let people know that there's a option out there for holistic natural healing if you're interested in that.

In an industry that's growing rapidly and there's talks between you know, fruiting body and mycilium, which one is better, how do they work? We just wanted to focus on fruiting bodies and extracting them and making a really high, high potent, efficacious product. So when we give it to you, we hope you know you receive it and it helped.

came out here, Michael Love was born. And now it's really cool because we actually put Michael Love mushroom extract in some Mumbo bottles. Okay, so it's it's really nice to know who's doing it and have a hand in sometimes out here mixing the substrate and picking the rachie or helping, you know, inoculate some some rieberries or kind of getting nerdy out here with mushrooms experiment. Yeah.

it's not new, but kind of new to culture. So to speak, Well, why do you think, I mean, why do you think that is? Why is it hitting now? But you know we're speaking outside. You said this could be thirty four million years old.

I think it's the fourth leading cause of death. If you summed them up for this reason for death for the last two decades, it would equal the fourth meeting cause of death and this is taking prescription medications as prescribed by your physician, which is crazy. So you're listening to a medical professional.

don't know all the answers. There's an estimated at this point ten million potential species of fungi in the planet. It's a big number, and we've named we the mycology industry or the micology world has named maybe one hundred, one hundred and fifty thousand species. And they're not all mushroom forming species. Some of these are ones that grow

and permeate our environment that you'll never really experience. But I think, you know, all of these things led to people trying to find, you know, better ways of living their lives.

if you will. But as we go through, you'll kind of learn the different rooms and the flow of what we do. And I guess we can kind of start here. And a good example is, you know, Michael Love really set out to be a vertically integrated mushroom company.

jar of rye grain, and then that jar grain. What's really cool about fungi is, you know, we consume our food and we digest it. Fungi sort of grow into their food and then digest it.

growth and acceptances is higher than it's ever been. And this is somewhere you found a passion and and and and and Jake, if you can talk to us where that passion came from and and and what has it been like for you on this journey.

if I got something that's good, I'm gonna share. And my first kind of journey down to become public about the use of cannabis, most importantly or more significant significantly as CBD, came with Charlotte's Web, when I got a chance to first take it and understand its benefits, to feel how it made me feel. It helped me feel a lot better. My headaches went away that I was having daily felt inflammation and some joints, being able to get back down on the floor again without the pain.

And so I was like, man, there's there's something here. If this is illegal, this isn't right, because it's helping me. And then I learned about the young children with severe seizure disorders that it's helping them, and these mothers that are coming to Colorado because they can't do it in the state they're in without fear of going to jail or prosecution. It's like, that's not right, Like this is

a human right. And so getting out and advocating about that, sending it to my teammates, to my loved ones to let them benefit, and then to see the path that it's gone on has been amazing. Cannabis is a medicine and it helps people whatever way you use it, whether that's marijuana or CBD or both combined. Right, there is something there that people need to know about. So that's been the whole thing to open up, is to educate, to advocate. Mushrooms came around because I met a guy

named Deal Jolly at Charlotte's Web. We became good friends, and he gave me some tinctures before the pandemic and I started taking those and it was like, WHOA, this is crazy. I feel like even another level of freedom in my joints. My allergies were not as bad. I was not afraid of this virus going around like COVID going around getting everybody. I wasn't afraid, and so we started rapping about it and said, if we're going to do this, let's do it right. Let's make sure our

product is very, very ethically sourced, potent and works. Because Charlotte's Web kind of set the bar with CBD that way, and I didn't want to do it any other way. And that's really what's brought me to hear and now from what I've benefitted and been grateful to have this opportunity to speak about it with you, with your audience,

with anybody, that's kind of what I do. I share this because we need to know there's nature, there's natural ways out there to help your body feel better, to help your mind function better, whether that's just being able to sleep a little better or have a little more energy during the day, to feel a little more productive so you don't jump your shit at night when you're alone looking in the mirror saying, man, I ain't getting

shit done. Well, maybe you can get a little more productivity with a little more focused, a little more clarity, And this is just a chance to do that. So it's been a beautiful, beautiful journey. But we're just getting startled. And that's the exciting part, is just barely even starting.

want to leave the field. I wanted to play, and if I left the field gave the door open to someone else to take it. It was like, no, I want that. I want to keep here, keep doing this and pursuing my childhood dream to win a Super Bowl.

The beatings were real, you know, and the stress along with that, not just the physical part of the game, but also the expectations heaped on really the face of a franchise, the number two in any of these billion dollar organizations, because they'll fire a coach and they'll keep me around, so you're a very very important part of that. But managing that was also you know, it was a challenge.

But I had good people around me. I have real strong family, good friends that would pull me back down when I was getting a little two up there to feeling like I was bigger than I really was. But post career, you know, it's been a it's they don't prep you for it. They'll they'll offer seminars, that'll offer conferences to talk about business or you know, media boot camp and all this stuff, but they really don't prepare you for what really is out there. And I didn't

plan for any of that. I was full one hundred percent balling when I was playing ball. The last thing I wanted to think about was when I retire, I think I'm going to try and into this. Like no, I was. I just wanted to win a Super Bowl, So I was solely focused on that. Therefore, when I got out, I had to kind of learn how to manage my time, manage what I did with my body. How do I go get treatment?

hell is this? This is something I got to look at. And that's right about when cannabis was legalized here. I moved back to Colorado, and that's about right when Charlotte's Webb came into the picture through a teammate, Nate Jackson, and a guy working for them named Ryan Kingsbury.

temporarily masking one thing and causing long term effects. Or you know, I know something that was very common in the NFL was toward all and you know I actually took some of that when I was in the league, and it was unbelievable.

you could lose your job. What were some of the ways you were able to manage the pain along along this journey.

I can't. I can't take these these are they're pulling one, you know, some version off the shelf because it's the elderly are dying from it that I'm popping to a day and it's like, wait, this is this doesn't sit real with me. And my mom always warned me, you know, and told me to be real cognitive of what you

put in your body, and uh, towards me tellen. In my career, I started, uh you know, I started smoking after games and using it as a way to like release release like I played in a I played in Arizona for six years, an organization that's had some success, and then I came here to the Denver Broncos, an organization that is his success, And all of a sudden, it was like I was fine with that, Like what are you gonna do? John Elway? This that like, I'm not John, I'm here to ball out. Let's go have

some fun, you know, like let's go play. If I can win a super Bowl, great, But the pressure came from like the expectation and the drive to be the best, to be perfect. I just it started to weigh me down. And postgame my family would be around. Rather than worried about not playing the best, I could go down and have a little smoke with the fam and I feel I would actually feel it. It was like I'm gonna have to watch this film tomorrow. I'm not gonna relive

it tonight. I get to see my family for four hours before I go to bed. I'm gonna drop in and see my family. And it was really good for me. But it also got me thinking too. Became real aware of what I was doing. How long do I want to do this because I never set out to do it a long time. I remember seeing John Alway my second year in the league, and I watched him walk out of a bar and up some stairs and I was like, whoa, that's what sixteen years get you. Like,

I am not gonna limp out of this game. I'm gonna run away from it. And that's that's what I did. I was able to pull that off. So I used I used a lot of natural medicine, a lot of massage, acupuncture. My mom, like I said, she was into holistic medicine and would give me garlic and honey for a cold, you know, like she was in it. Her mom was in it. A lot of herbs, a lot of tea, you know, certain things that aren't what you're gonna get with modern medicine. So I took pretty good care of

my body. But it was it was a lot of work.

and I had all my support casts around me. I could still go to ash you, I knew where all the good restaurants were. I had people that were already fans. I'd go out. Couldn't get a meal in college. I'm now pro, and I got money. Now I'm getting free meals everywhere and everything given to me. And it was a lot of fun. And I was able to get in and start right away my rookie year, which was also awesome. I didn't really want to, Like I said,

I didn't plan to play thirteen, fourteen, fifteen years. I just wanted to get a Super Bowl ring and then be done. And we put it together in ninety eight. We had a lot of really really awesome football players on the team. Jamiir Miller, Larry Sinners, Lomas Brown, Ronnie McKinnon, Kwame Laster. I mean, we had a lot of good players. We jailed together. We won four straight to end that season.

I resigned my rookie contract for what was the biggest contract in the league at the time, and I'm like, on my birthday, they're renegotiating the contract and it's a Friday night. That's my night. I got to get sleep. My agent kept calling me. I'm like, yo, I got to get some sleep. Stop calling me. I Well got them at nine million. I'm like, what do you what? Good? Let's where do we sign? Calls me at like eleven thirty. We got them to fifteen million. I'm like fifteen million,

what Like that's signing bonus? Like holy shit, this is ninety eight, my second year in the league. And so I'm like, oh, it's about to get real now, you know. And so we ended up making the playoffs that year. Then we kind of tanked, had some some let go of a lot of really good players. Management made a few bad decisions. I pressed through some injuries I should have taken time and kind of struggled for a few years. So while it sucked and it wasn't fun losing, it

was also really good learning to understand like who I was. Like, I still came to the to the facility to put in the work. I still worked my ass off in the off season. I still went every practice. I watched all the film and I knew who the guys were doing that with me. Yet we just couldn't quite put that together in Arizona. And I still, you know, grateful for the bid will so give me that opportunity. You know,

my standing down in the valley is pretty good. You know, I go down there and people take good care, so I don't regret any of it. But it was hard to lose thirteen games in a season and and b and be it take every snap. I took every single snap that And that's that's hard. When you're throwing balls, when you're down by twenty one, you're going to throw some interceptions. So I threw a lot of picks when I was trying to just make a play that I

shouldn't have. But that's okay. I was still I was fighting.

So you know, growing up, I was the youngest of two older brothers, so I learned real quick how to dodge stuff. Like they would throw stuff at me or come after me because I wasn't doing what they wanted. So I got nifty and shifty and able to move. And it was always active. I never sat around riding my bike, jumping on the trampoline, climbing trees, throwing rocks at anything he wanted to, Like I mean, it was.

I grew up just active and as far as like quickness and all that, my dad was a really good athlete, so it was my mom. Although they didn't play a lot of sports in an organized way, but my dad was a state champ in Idaho a handball for a couple of years and in Washington State. So like my dad was athletic and he was fast. My brothers were

both very fast, very good athletes. So man, if it wasn't ping pong, we were playing hacky sack, we were playing tennis, we were just playing dodgeball, whatever it was. We were always doing stuff. So I never I never went and trained for quarterbacking. I mean, we were just playing ball all the time. My quickness and all the shiftiness and all that, Like I said, it's just like probably honed that on the playgrounds at Pierce Park Elementary

School playing playing tackle five hundreds. Man, not let them catch me.

Then that third year it all came together. We had a team we had I mean, there's already a few Hall of famers off that team that I was playing with. It was tough. It was really tough to lose at home to the Steelers when I was right there AFC Championship week. When it happens, there's always this little feeling of like there's that little teeny bit of like did I go? Did I leave too soon? I have tried to go a little one more or two more to try to get it. But then I'm like, no, I'm good.

I got to there. That was That's pretty sweet for a kid from Boise, Idaho. That was one hundred and seventy pounds when I got to Asu. Yeah, I did all right. So it was fun. I made a lot of you know, great memories and my standing here in Denver. You know, the John told me, John Elway told me when I got here. If you play hard and you go out there every day and you grind and you do it during it, it might not be pretty sometimes, but when you're done and you're afterwards, they're gonna love

you forever. And he was not lying. Man, fans here treat me so well, and it's a great city to have played in. Now I live, I live in the area, so very blessed to be here in Colorado.

traumatic encephalopathy. It's this thaying a doctor made up to describe what happens your brain when you get either concussed or subconcuss and blows over and over and over. It's not good for your brain to get smashed like that. My thought on it is like, I can't say that I don't believe in it because that would really fire people up, because it's legit. Like there's people, there's guys they analyzed their brains and there's parts that are gone,

that have disappeared or dead, and that's CTE. It's from trauma. Me on the other hand, and what I am now feeling, I'm called to and so blessed to have followed this path, had friends like Dell and met others like Rashad Evans that have been in a brutal sport too, that have benefited who's a partner of ours. It's like, here's a chance to maybe find something to give these guys hope rather than oh man, you better get your concussion settlement, get total and permanent, because look what we got to

deal with. And it's no doubt our bodies are are put through more stress the common person. But there's a lot of humans that are active that have had concussions and put their body if they're a construction worker, through a lot of damage too. So if with athletes we can we join together, we do the right things, we

do some studies. We're actually we're actually putting together a study right now with former players to test functional mushrooms and peptides and see if we can reverse cognitive decline and physical dysfunction. We got to get data back before anybody listens. So if we get the right data back and we show we can maybe improve some of these guys' cognitive abilities or things they're worried about. Because sometimes I don't remember where I put my wallet. Does that mean

I got CTE or dementia? No, happens. We're not supposed to be perfect all the time. But if you're in that mode and you're thinking, oh shit, I had twenty concussions and I don't remember right now where I'm supposed to go, oh no, and that can be a snowball that just goes downhill fast. So I want to give these guys hope, give them hope that this is nature and if I can bring this to you, man, here it is, take it. I don't want anything for this.

I just want you to feel better and have hope that we can live a better life, feel better, think clearer, and maybe reverse this narrative that we're told that we're given and not really given much of an answer for through the powers that be. You know, Jerry Jones maybe one of those guys to like make a difference. Let's

let's research this. You got money, Let's put it down, Let's have some Let's put it down and study this with the clinical trials that we need to prove to the rest of them of America that this is legitimate, a legitimate way to help people thrive and have health and wellness. That's what That's what I'm here to do.

to speak the truth of how it's helped us. And if you want to come into that, that would be awesome, because I mean, if I can help you feel better, what better thing than my life can I do? That's a gift because I used to do it by just smiling and signing an autograph. I make a little kid

go over the moon. Now I can possibly help somebody get off the couch, have a little less pain, maybe think a little clearer, be all right with like aging gracefully, think about longevity and vitality as the same thing together. Like let's let's let's picture that future.

a different reason. And that's why, you know, I wish you guys the best with this, because you guys are genuinely out here trying to help people and and and that's from kids to our grandparents. And just really want to commence you guys for your work and thank you.

Can you talk about like how like we have what we discussed over on the farmhouse, like they help some of the communities who are being sickened by there just the environments they are in from either big companies or industry.

the air. And this is micro remediation. So we've spent a lot of time talking about mushrooms for physical and mental health, where we haven't even scratched the surface on a lot of people doing the work for micro remediation, for cleaning up the water with the use of mycilium, or mushrooms like the oyster mushroom that has already shown and been gone through trials where it is removing toxins

and PCBs and diesels from the earth. It's trans biotransmuting it back into its body and like cleaning up our soils, and so these places where people are subjected to live because they are low on the economic scale and they're sick, and no one's coming up with any answers. That's a lot of these I like to just say, I guess they're just fellow mushrooms out there trying to make a difference, and they're making materials leather out of out of mushrooms.

I'm still wanting to make a football out of some mushroom leather and see if we can get that on the field on Sunday or somehow let them know, like there is a way to treat not just humans, but all living things with a little more reverence. And we're just scratching the surface. Man's that's the exciting part is we're just we're just barely stepping into this as a as a Western society. And if I you know, whoever's listening, thank you for listening, because you know this is the future.

I think of some health and wellness not only for us, but for the for the grandmother Earth that we live on.

time with this awesome crew. And I think we're going to eat some lines made you can't wait tacos that were some lines made from the farm.