Herm Wants To Give Vinny A Last Hurrah By Erik Boland Newsday 12/21/05 Vinny Testaverde noticed something strange. Warming up before his first start of the season, Oct. 9 against Tampa Bay at the Meadowlands, Testaverde kept hearing things from the fans. It was all positive. "You have a lot of memories on the football field and you think of certain plays," the 19-year veteran said yesterday. "But this is a memory that doesn't involve a football play. It's something that pretty much took me my whole career to experience and enjoy. I haven't experienced that before. Not at that level." A sellout crowd roared when Testaverde took the field that fall afternoon and cheered throughout as Testaverde helped deliver a 14-12 upset victory over the Buccaneers. The Tampa game was Testaverde's welcome back to the Jets, a team he quarterbacked from 1998-2003. Coach Herman Edwards said yesterday one of his priorities over the Jets' final two games, at home Monday night against the Patriots or Jan. 1 against the Bills, is making sure Testaverde gets an appropriate sendoff. "Whether he gets in this week or next week, he is going to get into the ballgame, I know that," Edwards said. "I owe him that... I think it is fitting for him to play a little bit and I am going to try and get that done for him. He understands, too, if it doesn't happen, it doesn't happen, but I just think it is the right thing to do." In some ways, things have come full circle for Testaverde, who turned 42 in November. Though he is one of only nine quarterbacks in league history to throw for more than 40,000 yards, Testaverde has never been fully embraced by the fans of any of the five teams for which he has played. That changed after Testaverde un-retired in October to rejoin the Jets. The Jets, having lost Chad Pennington and backup Jay Fiedler Oct. 2 against Miami, were desperate for a quarterback. Testaverde answered the call. "The guy was retired and came back to try to help us win," coach Herman Edwards said. "He won a game for us his first time out. That says a lot about him and what he has done for this organization." Testaverde said he would relish the chance playing Monday night. Besides helping the Jets advance to the AFC Championship in 1998 with a victory over Jacksonville, Testaverde's most memorable game as a Jet might have occurred on Monday Night Football on Oct. 23, 2000, when the Jets beat Miami, 40-37 in overtime. New York entered the fourth quarter trailing 30-7, but Testaverde led a rally resulting in a club-record 30 fourth-quarter points and the biggest comeback victory in Jets history. "It would be nice to come in and throw the winning touchdown [Monday]," Testaverde said. "That would be a nice way to sum it [his career] up." But Testaverde said he did not want to disrupt the progress Brooks Bollinger has made in recent weeks. Bollinger won his first game as a pro Dec. 11 against Oakland and threw for 327 yards in last Sunday's loss at Miami. "I told Herm, 'Don't feel like you owe me anything,'" Testaverde said. Edwards apparently believes otherwise.