Testaverde's Grace Appreciated Among Mediocre Pickings By Bill Livingston Cleveland Plain Dealer 9/16/04 IRVING, Texas (AP) -- You always hear about the shortage of pitching in baseball, but how about in football? I give you Trent Dilfer and Brad Johnson, who quarterbacked two of the past four Super Bowl champions. I give you Jake Delhomme, the new Kurt Warner. I give you Kerry Collins, who made it to a Super Bowl, and Rich Gannon, who did, too - and won an NFL Most Valuable Player award to boot. I give you, for the 18th season since his Heisman Trophy year at the University of Miami, at age 40, Vinny Testaverde. Ten years after leading the Browns to their last playoff victory, Bill Belichick's Vinny, Bill Parcells' Vinny, and once-Cleveland's own Vinny will be slinging them for the Dallas Cowboys Sunday against the Browns. The first thought that occurs is that quarterbacking is so undistinguished, except for isolated cases (Peyton Manning, and arguably Steve McNair), that Testaverde looks pretty good in the NFL these days. Quarterback is a position in which players enjoy reputations based on projections (Michael Vick, Byron Leftwich) and past performances (Brett Favre, at least lately. Look at his deep passes.) A player's supporting cast is huge. Now that he has a receiver who can make a play in Terrell Owens, the Eagles' Donovan McNabb might not be so star-crossed in big games. This certainly is a big part of it with Vinny. He was beaten down in Tampa Bay at the start of his career. Some of it has to do with fitting into the right system. Testaverde has thrived with Dallas' Parcells before, with the Jets. Also, Testaverde now only does what the system asks of him. In a similar vein, Belichick wins with Tom Brady, but it's doubtful Brady could carry a team all year. But Testaverde has had an 18-year career because he has a great arm. "God was pretty good to him initially," Parcells said. The Browns' Butch Davis remembers a play Testaverde made in college against Oklahoma, completing a pass after a mad scramble. "Everybody on their team had two shots at him," Davis said. "He's one of the most gifted physical specimens I've ever seen. He has a rocket arm." But experience had to smooth the rough edges of raw talent. The confused Vinny of the Penn State Fiesta Bowl and the butt of color-blindness jokes grew up. He became a thinker, as well as a thrower. Longevity means a lot, although not as much as in baseball. Still, look at how long Randall Cunningham and Boomer Esiason played. For his part, Testaverde made as great a transformation as Warner, Tommy Maddox, and the other flavors of their seasons. Now he's a surrogate coach. He served as a mentor to Chad Pennington on the Jets. He'll buy time for Drew Henson to mesh his gears in Dallas, following the surprising release of last year's Cowboy starter Quincy Carter. Testaverde is another example of Belichick being right. Vinny had far more left in his tank than Bernie Kosar. (But Todd Philcox, who replaced Kosar because Testaverde was hurt, never ran on much except fumes.) The NFL mythology is that it takes a long time to be a good quarterback. While that is often true, and while it is nice to see a stand-up guy like Vinny still playing, Testaverde seldom has been outstanding. Among Heisman winners, he's not Gino Torretta, but he's not Roger Staubach, either. Still, give him his due. He has fooled the clock, outlived the jokes and outlasted his critics. Vinny, forever Vinny.