Saturday, January 16, 1999
Parcells get best of Vinny
Coach reminds Testaverde of his father
BY GEOFF HOBSON
The Cincinnati Enquirer
![[testaverde]](/editions/1999/01/16/vinny_150x174.jpg)
Vinny Testaverde celebrates last week's playoff win over the Jaguars.
(AP photo)
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DENVER — Quarterback Vinny Testaverde has finally made it. His baggage of bad interceptions and even worse decisions has finally been re-routed to the AFC championship game.
And yet the whispers are still as loud as 80,000 Broncos fans destined to greet Testaverde and his New York Jets here Sunday at Mile High Stadium.
“Vinny is so dumb, he makes Terry Bradshaw look like a Nobel Prize winner.”
“Vinny will find a way to lose it.”
“Vinny will end up killing them.”
“Vinny will be Vinny.”
But back in Elmont, N.Y., a 66-year-old man whispers only one thing in a soft, yet tough voice.
“Do you have kids?” asked Al Testaverde, Vinny's father who is as well-known for his heart as his son is for his arm. “I hope they grow up to be just like Vinny. He makes me so proud. Never gave me an ounce of trouble. He doesn't know what it is to boast. I've never seen him happier. He's home.”
Everyone wants to know why at age 35 it has suddenly kicked in for Vinny in his first season in New York, a fly pattern from where he grew up. This is a guy who threw 35 interceptions one year, completed 43 percent of his passes another, and in another nearly threw half as many touchdowns (8) as interceptions (15).
But he's in the playoffs for a second time, after navigating the Jets through the AFC East with 29 touchdowns and
seven interceptions. The man who finished 1997 with a 72.8 career passing rating racked up 101.6 in 1998.
And Al Testaverde, the retired South Brooklyn cement mason, thinks he knows why — even though he hasn't watched Vinny play on live TV since his 1988 heart attack at Tampa Stadium.
Actually, Vinny has been talking about it for the past few days. Bill Parcells, the Jets' dictator/coach, is closer to Al in personality than any of his other coaches. Strict. No-nonsense. A disciplinarian.
“Vinny says I'm worse than Bill,” Al said with a laugh. “Worse than Bill? I didn't know I was that bad.
“Look at what Vinny has now. He has Bill Parcells. It's having a coach and having a team around you. He's got the right cast around him. Bill Parcells. That's why he's doing so well. There's never been as good a coach as Bill Parcells. Half of the (NFL coaches his son had), didn't know what they were doing. They'd get so mad, so upset. As mad as (Parcells) gets, he holds his cool to a degree. There's no other way. A pat on the back now and again.”
There have been few pats on the back. But on Friday, Vinny almost savored the slaps in the face.
“Whatever I've been through in my career to this point has been worth it, just to be able to have an opportunity like this,” Vinny said, when asked whether the critics would ever be happy. “I know all the experiences I've gone through have helped me put a season together like this. I don't care what's said or what's been said.”
Former Bengals coach Sam Wyche coached Testaverde for one season in Tampa Bay in 1992, the end of Vinny's miserable six-year stint with the Buccaneers in which the club never won more than six games. Testaverde had a so-so year for another bad Buc team with 14 touchdowns and 16 interceptions, but Wyche said he didn't find a big, dumb guy.
“He picked up the offense as quickly as anyone,” Wyche said. “Best pure passer I ever coached. And I had Boomer Esiason, Ken Anderson, Joe Montana. When I got to Tampa, everyone was mad at him. But that was tough because he was expected to carry the load and there weren't a lot of players.
“He's a great guy, an unassuming guy. He doesn't have a type A personality, and people misunderstand that from a competitiveness standpoint.”
Parcells emphasized two things when he signed Testaverde back in June.
“Basically he was in a three wide-receiver offense and had to rely on the wide receivers, and as a result he threw the ball down the field more than he is now,” Parcells said. “So we just try to get him to be a little bit more (running) back conscious in the utilization of people. And try to make a conscious effort when he pulls the ball down and faced with doing something other than passing, try to make a good decision. In the past, he'd been a little too creative once he pulled the ball down.”
Said Wyche, “At this point in his career, that's good advice for him. He's not throwing late, or going across the middle late trying to force a play.”
Usually, the only guy going for 1,000 yards in Tampa Bay, Cleveland, or Baltimore was Testaverde himself. Now he has a 1,000-yard runner, two 1,000-yard receivers and a defense that hasn't allowed a 100-yard runner in the past 11 games.
He doesn't have to do it all like he did in Baltimore in 1996, the only other time he went to the Pro Bowl. He threw 33 touchdowns, but had to throw at least 40 passes in six games. He has thrown more than 34 passes only once this season.
The Broncos say this Vinny is content to march the ball down the field instead of flinging it. Just look at third down, when he has thrown 10 touchdown passes, no interceptions and completed 63 percent of his passes.
“The thinking there is, we've got a good defense that gets us the ball back,” Testaverde said of his flawless play on third down. “Give them time on the field a little bit and let them stop the other team, and we'll get the ball back and point puts on the board. In the past I felt like I had to make some big plays, and that hurt me and led to mistakes.”
His teammates don't want to hear about that Vinny. Their Vinny is a guy that soothed a locker room still reeling from last season's Neil O'Donnell experience.
O'Donnell's aloofness from his teammates caused resentment in the locker room. When Testaverde replaced Glenn Foley as the starter in the second month of this season, he went out of his way to make everybody feel a part of it.
“We haven't talked about Neil O'Donnell for a year around here,” receiver Keyshawn Johnson said of the man who ended up a Bengal.
After Testaverde was named to the Pro Bowl, he invited the other Jets quarterbacks to Hawaii for the game and gave his five offensive linemen Rolex watches. When he was named AFC Player of the Week, each linemen found a portable stereo at their locker. After one game, he ordered them each a bottle of champagne.
“He's been around 12 years, he's a veteran, he's smart,” said Jason Fabini, the Jets' rookie right tackle from the University of Cincinnati. “I've heard him in the huddle before a big play say, "Championship teams get this first down.'”
Al Testaverde knew he had a champion long ago. Of course, he won't watch Sunday. He's thinking of driving to his Pennsylvania cottage. It's about two hours each way. He'll find out what happened when he gets home at night.
“I've got four sons-in-law and 10 grandchildren,” Al said, sounding a lot like his grateful son. “I usually know exactly what happened 10 minutes after it's over. Believe me, we appreciate these good times.”
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![[testaverde]](/editions/1999/01/16/vinny_431x500.jpg)