Vinny Wants To Feel Loved By Jets Fans One Last Time NJ Star-Ledger 12/21/05 HEMPSTEAD, N.Y. -- It took quarterback Vinny Testaverde 19 seasons -- stops in Tampa Bay, Cleveland, Baltimore, the Jets, Dallas and now the Jets again -- to finally feel the love. It happened when he made his first start this season, Oct. 9 against the Bucs, and jogged onto the field to a standing ovation. He led the Jets to victory that day. Two weeks earlier, he was at home watching the Jets from his couch. On Monday night against the Patriots, Testaverde, 42, hopes to get that loving feeling one last time. He plans to retire at the end of this season. "I would love to get on the field and play for however long just one last time," Testaverde said yesterday. "It would be great. It would mean a lot to me. Just a chance to take one last snap and say goodbye to the playing days." Testaverde, who grew up rooting for the Jets on Long Island, holds dear his time with his hometown team. His first stint was 1998-2003. He played in Dallas last year before returning this season when Chad Pennington and Jay Fiedler were injured in Week 3 against the Jaguars. "I really felt (the bond with the fans) when I first got back here this year in the Tampa Bay game and I took the field for the first time in that game," Testaverde said. "You have a lot of memories on the football field. Usually you think back and you remember certain plays but this is a memory that doesn't involve a football play. "It (feeling the fans' appreciation) is just something that pretty much took me my whole career to experience. I had never experienced it before, not at that level. It meant a lot to me and it always will. ... I run out on the field and the crowd is cheering. It's something you never forget." Though coach Herman Edwards has stressed he's in the business of winning games, not providing sentimental moments, he believes Testaverde has earned the right to take one final bow. Edwards said he'll play Testaverde, who backs up Brooks Bollinger, against the Patriots or against the Bills on Jan. 1. Both games are at Giants Stadium. "I owe him that," Edwards said. "I think it's fitting for him to play a little bit. I just think it's the right thing to do." For years, Testaverde, who was 1-3 in four starts this season with 12 turnovers (six interceptions, six fumbles), was the punch line of bad football jokes. In Tampa Bay, he played on some wretched Bucs teams and was booed unmercifully. In Cleveland, he took over for the beloved Bernie Kosar and then the team bolted to Baltimore, where Testaverde earned his first Pro Bowl berth with the Ravens. In 1998, he came to the Jets and threw a club-record 29 touchdowns and just seven interceptions to lead his team to the AFC Championship Game against Denver and was selected to his second Pro Bowl. He suffered a season-ending Achilles' tendon injury the following year in the season opener and then lost his starting job to Pennington in 2002. A trip to the Super Bowl has eluded the veteran. Coincidentally, one of Testaverde's finest moments came on "Monday Night Football" when he rallied the Jets from a 30-7 fourth-quarter deficit against the Miami Dolphins to a 40-37 overtime victory. In the fourth quarter, he completed 18 of 26 passes for 235 yards and four touchdowns. It was the biggest comeback victory in team history. "Going to Tampa, I had some tough times down there," said Testaverde, who admitted he had finally begun thinking about retirement the past two weeks. "If I had to choose a way (to end my career), I'd choose no other way then to have it go this way. "If anything good has come out of (this season), it has given me closure. A lot of times you don't get to have that. Given this year, I've had the opportunity to get that. It's a good thing even though the year hasn't gone the way we wanted."