Testaverde Can Still Pass For Younger Age By Jim Reeves Fort Worth Star-Telegram Staff Writer 11/13/04 IRVING - By all rights, Vinny Testaverde shouldn't have been standing in front of his locker this week. He shouldn't have been standing, period. Vinny turns 41 today, and we've all decided that that's just too old to play in the NFL. No doubt, he's down at the drugstore right now, stocking up on Depends and applying for AARP membership. If memory serves, the over-under on Testaverde still being upright with all vital parts intact by this point in the season was set at eight games way back during training camp. Long-term survival for the old fellow was in serious doubt. Yet, there he was at Valley Ranch, fit, healthy, with no obvious broken bones, forced into a position of having to defend what, until last Sunday, has been a surprisingly stellar season. The play-Drew wolves are howling, and, since he's not quite deaf despite his advanced age, Vinny has heard them loud and clear. Understand, he's a team guy. If Bill Parcells tells him to take a seat, he'll do so without a whimper or a pout. If Parcells says tell the kid everything you know, he'll do that, too. I watched Testaverde do his best to handle the questions after his first really poor game last week in Cincinnati. He knows the situation. He understands that, at some point, the Cowboys must find out about Henson, so they'll know whether they need to draft another quarterback in the spring. But he doesn't have to like it, and he's not ready to concede anything. Not this season. Not even next. "When you have an opportunity or a chance to win, you try to win right now," Testaverde said. "That's what we're all in this business to do. At some point, when you know you can't attain your goals, maybe that's the time you make a change. But we're not there yet." The rest of us may know the Cowboys are going nowhere this season, so they may as well find out what they have in Henson. But Testaverde, Parcells and the Cowboys want mathematical proof. That should come Monday night against the Eagles. But nothing has happened this season, not even today's birthday, to make Testaverde believe he can't continue playing at a high level for some time to come. He has a point. Even after last weekend's disaster, his 84.1 quarterback ranking puts him ninth among NFC starters, ahead of such luminaries as Michael Vick, Brad Johnson and the sainted Jake Delhomme. Six interceptions in his last two games have dropped his rating, but clearly Testaverde has reason to be happy with almost everything about the season other than the Cowboys' 3-5 record. "When I look at the entire season, there's only a handful of throws I'd like to have back," he said. Testaverde has completed 62.4 percent of his passes. His 2,051 yards ranks third in the NFC, behind Mark Bulger and Donovan McNabb. "Who's to say I can't play for another year or two?" he asked the other day. "I guess everybody's assuming that because I'm 40, 41, I'm done, but in all honesty, how many 25 year-olds could have gotten away from those guys on some of those scrambles?" Only then did he drop the poker face and smile. It seems even his sense of humor has survived. "I'm sure when people hear he's 40, 41, some people who are that age [or older] think they couldn't do it, so they assume I can't probably do it for long or can't do it very well," Testaverde said. "In my mind, nothing, except for myself, says I can't do it for another year or two. It's whether I want to do it and in what capacity. "If I'd come into the season and said I was 25, they wouldn't be really bringing up all these other questions." But he's not 25, and so the questions are there, and they're not going away. This is a what-have-you-done-for-me-lately league. He was once benched in Cleveland after winning quarterback-of-the-month honors because the team was "looking for a spark." For the Cowboys, it's more about looking for a future. Forty-one-year-old quarterbacks have a history, not a future. "Their decision is their decision," Testaverde said. "It doesn't mean I have to like any decision they make. It's irrelevant, really. "I'm here to help in whatever capacity I can, whether it's on the field or on the sideline helping whoever." But let's not kid ourselves here. Testaverde came here because he wanted to play, not tutor some kid who hasn't been in a live game in four years. "I came here to win," Testaverde said. "But I've been around long enough to understand why and how some of the blame gets diverted in certain directions. In my mind, I can roll with it pretty good because I know it's a team game. "When everything seems real gloomy, you just have to go through your weekly process of preparing, not letting our record distract me, not letting the talk about Drew distract me, not letting any doubt come into your mind, and just concentrating on beating the Eagles." He will do that as long as the job is his. When it's not, he will step aside gracefully and without complaint and do whatever Parcells asks him to do next. We've had the privilege of watching a pro at work at Cowboys quarterback this season. How long has it been since we've been able to say that?