Fitting End

I read this over lunch and just had to share it with you. If you watched Monday night's ABC football farewell, you saw Vinny Testaverde throw a TD pass in his 19th straight season, and NFL record. It may well be his last appearance in an NFL uniform, much less throwing a ball in anger. What did Vinny think?

"You couldn't have scripted a better ending."

Umm, Vinny? Your team lost the game. They're not even going to the playoffs. You're 3-12, for goodness sakes.

If you had, you know, scripted something, maybe it would have ended differently than a garbage-time TD pass to Laveraneus Coles in front of a disinterested Hank Poteat. Had you scripted, you know, the ending, maybe you'd be carried off by an adoring throng after a miraculous Super Bowl victory? You know. If you're scripting.

But he's right. Vinny has always put up good numbers in losing efforts (at least since he left Tampa, where he just lost). He's Drew Bledsoe without an AFC Championship ring (okay, and Super Bowl ring). He's a big tough guy with a cannon arm who can take a lot of hits.

For a couple of memorable seasons with the Jets, the Tuna and Assistant Head Coach Bill Belichick reduced his reads and gave him a few solid targets, and Vinny was golden. Without the special handling though, his ten-cent-head trumped his million-dollar-arm.

So here's to you Vinny. Just like you would have scripted it.