Cowboys' Fate Tied To Testaverde Bill Parcells confident in the 40-year-old QB By Ashley McGeachy Fox Philadelphia Inquirer Staff Writer 8/17/04 OXNARD, Calif. - Early during the Dallas Cowboys' training camp, before the upheaval at quarterback, Bill Parcells told a story that, as it turned out, spoke volumes about his respect for Vinny Testaverde. Parcells said that in January, after the Cowboys' first-round playoff loss to the Carolina Panthers, he gave incumbent Quincy Carter a laminated card with off-season goals: Study your 21 interceptions, and learn from them. Add five pounds of pure muscle. Improve your accuracy. Asked whether he gave 40-year-old Vinny Testaverde a similar cheat sheet, Parcells just laughed. "He doesn't need one," Parcells said. After 17 seasons in the NFL, Testaverde has proven he knows how to stay in shape and how to lead a team. And with the early August dismissal of Carter, the Cowboys are now Testaverde's team to lead. It was a stunning turn for a franchise that had preached all preseason of new beginnings. No one, from owner Jerry Jones on down, wanted to ride the wave of last season, when Dallas went a surprising 10-6, had the league's best defense, and made the playoffs for the first time since 1999, when Emmitt Smith and Troy Aikman still wore the Dallas star. During the off-season, Parcells fashioned the Cowboys more in his image. He added Testaverde and the loquacious receiver Keyshawn Johnson, key members of Parcells' 1998 New York Jets team, which went 12-4 and won the franchise's first division title since the NFL and AFL merged. Parcells also added Eddie George of Tennessee to Dallas' backfield, and traded for former University of Michigan quarterback Drew Henson, who had been playing third base in the New York Yankees' minor-league system. But for Parcells to continue his pattern of improving teams in his second year on the job - in his three previous coaching moves, Parcells has won at least three more games in his second season - Testaverde will be key. Parcells wasn't shy in letting Testaverde know that, either. "You want the good news, or the bad news?" Parcells asked Testaverde on the day Carter was jettisoned. Testaverde requested the bad news. "The jig is up on you," Parcells said. "Are you giving me my boxing gloves back?" asked Testaverde. "Yeah. You want 'em?" "Yeah. That's what I came here for." Testaverde ranks seventh all time in passing yards, with 40,943. He has started 189 games, including the first seven for the Jets last season when Chad Pennington went down with an injury. Before Pennington closed out the final nine games of the season, Testaverde completed 62.1 percent of his passes for 1,385 yards, with seven touchdowns and two interceptions. New York went 2-5 in those games. Perhaps Testaverde's biggest asset is his familiarity with Parcells, and, to a lesser extent, Johnson. The trio were together with the Jets in 1998, when Testaverde posted a 101.6 passer rating, with 29 touchdowns and just seven interceptions, and Johnson caught 83 passes for 1,131 yards and 10 touchdowns. "I was hoping that he'd be the same guy, that he wouldn't get soft over the years he was away from football, and he hasn't," Testaverde said of Parcells. "He's still coaching the same way, and it's good to see. "He knows how to coach. He knows how to win football games. He knows how to get his team prepared to win. He has a set of guidelines that he follows, and he's not going to change from it, no matter what. It's a winning formula. He's proven it, and that's what I like about it. He doesn't treat everybody the same, but he treats them all fairly." Even when Carter was in camp, Parcells gushed about Testaverde and his rigorous off-season training regimen. Parcells seemed comforted by Testaverde's diligence, his trustworthiness, and their shared past. He kept saying of Testaverde, "I know him. I know him." And Parcells never has doubted Testaverde's talent. "He's a good pure passer, and he's in tremendous physical condition," Parcells said when asked about Testaverde's strength at the advanced football age of 40. "The day before he dies, he'll have" arm strength. The reunion in Dallas of Parcells, Testaverde and Johnson has prompted a few jokes about how the Cowboys are the Jets of the NFC. "I might've heard that once or twice before in the last month," Testaverde said. "Bill's always been a guy who's been loyal to players who have played in his system before, who know him and understand the way he expects things to be done," said former Chicago Bears coach Mike Ditka, now an ESPN football analyst. "That's why it's not a surprise to see Richie Anderson and Keyshawn and Vinny. I think the Vinny move was a good move."