Working this job has taken me to a fair amount of schools in the area over the past four and a half years. But never had a trek to grammar school arisen so suddenly and unexpectedly as Friday’s jaunt through a 16-mile thicket of traffic to Columbine Elementary School on Denver’s east side.

Let’s face facts — the presence of every television station in the Denver market, along with the Rocky Mountain News, The (Colorado Springs) Gazette, the Associated Press and two representatives from our site — wasn’t because Jay Cutler was going to help students read Fox in Socks in what would become a bilingual lesson in the simple wisdom of Dr. Seuss’ works.

Before — and after — his reading lesson, Cutler acquiesced to interviews regarding the Friday morning reports on NFL.com and NFL Network regarding Jake Plummer’s future.

Cutler, however, heard news from another source — fellow Broncos quarterback Preston Parsons, who has known Plummer for nearly five years.

“Preston is the first one who told me that it’s official, Jake’s retiring,” Cutler said.

“Jake has obviously expressed interest at the end of the year that he wants to possibly move on and get away from football. I kind of always felt that he might do that. But you never know with Jake. He’s still a competitor. He’s going to miss football. You never know what’s going to happen.”

What did happen Friday was the finalization of the trade for cornerback Dré Bly.

It’s impossible to ignore the parallel shaping up in the secondary with the Broncos and the one that new assistant Jim Bates helmed in Miami for five successful seasons. Bates had a pair of Pro Bowlers on the corners in South Florida with Patrick Surtain and Sam Madison.

Between Bly and Champ Bailey, Denver’s corners possess nine Pro Bowls. With Domonique Foxworth also in the mix at cornerback, the cornerback corps now possesses the same kind of depth it had before Darrent Williams’ death on New Year’s morning.