Pumping Iron Builds Testaverde's Mettle By Dave Hutchinson New Jersey Star-Ledger 10/16/05 BUFFALO, N.Y. -- Vinny Testaverde had a good laugh as he was shown the mock photo depicting Jets quarterbacks of the past, clad in their jerseys sitting on a couch outside coach Herman Edwards' office waiting for an interview. There they were. Joe Namath. Boomer Esiason. Richard Todd. Ken O'Brien. Standing up looking at a picture on the wall was Glenn Foley. The photo implied that Testaverde was inside Edwards' office being interviewed and signed. The others never even got a chance to talk to the coach. "The guy behind that door who the coach is signing is me," said a smiling Testaverde, admiring the photo. "But what people don't see is all the hard work behind the scenes you have to put in. "Let's say hypothetically that all those guys want to come back and have a second shot. But are they doing all the things people aren't seeing to go out and be successful? I don't think they are." Testaverde, 41, has been paying the price every off-season for years in his state-of-the-art home gym. And the fruits of his labor will be on display today when he makes the second start of his unlikely comeback against the Buffalo Bills at Ralph Wilson Stadium. "That's why he has been around so long," Edwards said. "He's a guy who is a model for any player." Three weeks ago, Testaverde may have been sitting on his couch watching the Jets lose their top two quarterbacks -- Chad Pennington and Jay Fiedler -- to major shoulder injuries, but he wasn't a couch potato. Since 1993, Testaverde has been a workout warrior, having had customized gyms built in his past two homes, one in Florida and his current residence in Oyster Bay, N.Y. He works out three to four hours a day, four days a week in the off-season and has kept a log of every bench press and leg curl for the past 12 years. "That's kind of how I've judged myself over the years in comparing my strength and conditioning," said the 6-5, 235-pound Testaverde, who has graying temples, six-pack abs and hardly an ounce of body fat. "I figure I'd always have something to look back on. "I'm pretty close to the same in a lot of my exercises from 1993. My bench press might be down 15 pounds (Testaverde normally presses around 250 pounds) and my squat really hasn't changed. ... Sometimes when I get injured, the numbers change. For example, the year after I hurt my Achilles' tendon, my squat wasn't as strong. But then a year later, it was back up." The ground-floor gym Testaverde had built in 2000 in his Oyster Bay home rivals the trendiest of health clubs. He has free weights, Olympic bars, leg machines, neck machines, treadmills, StairMaster, life cycle. You name it, Testaverde has it. In fact, Testaverde has everything but a personal trainer. Never has and never will. His wife, Mitzi, often works out in the gym at the same time as her husband but Testaverde doesn't have a workout partner. "I've always believed that if you want to be successful, you have to motivate yourself," Testaverde said. "You can't always rely on someone else to motivate you." Testaverde credits his late father, Al, and his high school football coach, Bill Piner, for instilling a work ethic in him. In high school, at Sewanhaka High on Long Island, Testaverde said the team would go to a weeklong training camp in upstate New York to prepare for the season and that sense of preparation has stayed with him. This past off-season, Testaverde scaled down his workouts because he was uncertain of his future in the NFL. Instead of beginning his work in February or sooner, he waited until mid-March. Then his workouts weren't as demanding because he didn't have any goals and his phone wasn't ringing. Six weeks ago, Testaverde said he stepped up his routine in the hope of one final hurrah and then the opportunity with the Jets came up. When the call from Edwards came, Testaverde was ready. "That's one of the reasons he was the right guy (to replace Pennington and Fiedler)," Edwards said. "I knew the kind of guy he is. I know a lot of people were like, 'What are you doing?' "When we signed him that Tuesday, after he did his contract, he went downstairs to work out before he even started watching game film. That's the kind of guy he is. Even when he finally retires, he'll still be in shape."