Vinny Is Certain To Pressure Quincy Gil Lebreton Fort Worth Star-Telegram 6/4/04 IRVING - Standing in front of the cameras and notepads, Owner Jones already knew what the burning question would be. "You're going to ask questions about competition," Jones said Thursday, firing his own pre-emptive strike. "There will be competition at quarterback." And with that, a dark shadow descended upon the House of Quincy. Badda-boom, badda-bing, as they like to say back in Vinny Testaverde's Long Island, N.Y., hometown. The Cowboys owner made sure that he didn't leave the room Thursday without laying the quarterbacking cards on the table. "Basically, we have an incumbent in Quincy [Carter]," Jones said. "But we want to be better than we have been at quarterback, and competition creates that. "We know it's going to make us better." If Carter, never the most secure member of the Cowboys' family anyway, felt the neck on his jersey tightening Thursday, if he looked over his shoulder and saw the shadow, if he picked up the phone and was tempted to dial either 911 or his consoling buddy Donovan McNabb ... good. A little competition never hurt anybody. And this time, it's not the pseudo-challenges of a Clint Stoerner or an Anthony Wright. Nor is it Tony Banks, who was dispatched out of town in mid-training camp, lest his "formidable" presence distract young Carter. This is Vinny Testaverde, 17-year NFL veteran. This is a quarterback who won the Heisman Trophy in college and has taken an NFL team to the conference title game. He played for the Bucs. He played for the Browns. He played in Baltimore. And most important, he played for Bill. "When I first went to the Jets, it was because of Bill Parcells," Testaverde said. He and the Cowboys coach, Vinny explained, "believe in a lot of the same philosophies." Namely, it seems, they believe in the radical doctrine that the best man gets to play quarterback. It won't matter whether that man will be 27 years old this season or 41. Testaverde's agent, Mike Azzarelli, may not have had a long line of NFL suitors ringing his doorbell about Vinny. But as Testaverde himself said, "The fire still burns within for me to be out on the field playing." Parcells didn't promise him a clipboard. Parcells did assure Vinny, it appears, an honest chance to be the Cowboys' starting quarterback. Otherwise, Testaverde said, he wouldn't have been interested. Can a 40-year-old quarterback start regularly in today's NFL? Maybe we should be asking Parcells' offensive line that. There are no league stats for interceptions-to-ribs-broken ratios, and no actuary tables to predict the Sunday when Vinny heaves his last pass. If Carter rises to the challenge and beats out Testaverde for the starting job, Vinny says that he has no problem with that. He trusts in Parcells. "Not everybody who plays for Bill Parcells likes him," Testaverde said. "But they all respect him and the way he approaches the game. He's hard to play for, but he's fair. And as a player, that's all you can ask for." What Carter thinks of Parcells isn't really pertinent. If Quincy thinks that the parade of quarterback challengers -- Chad Hutchinson, Tony Romo and now Drew Henson and Testaverde -- means that Parcells would replace him, he's right. But the only agenda is winning. The quick fall from grace of Hutchinson has proven that. Carter can either rise to the occasion or shrink from it. In the meantime, Parcells will be watching. Owner Jones knew what the big question would be at Thursday's announcement. In past years, it would have been called a quarterback controversy. This time, it's a quarterback "competition." "Vinny came to play," Jones announced. If that made the night uneasy in the Quincy Carter household, that was probably part of the idea.