Vinny Testaverde Quotations

I'm excited, happy, nervous, anxious, all those feelings about playing for the Jets again. If I didn't have high expectations, I wouldn't come back here.

First you have to spread on the rust performer, then you add a coat of protective enamel, and then you spray on the satin finish so you look good.

Football is about winning; it's that simple. You have to love what you do. If you're here for the money, than you don't belong here.

I think you have regrets when you didn't give it everything you had, and I always felt like I did. Whether it was good enough or not, that has nothing to do with the fact that I tried my best to give my team a chance to win, year in and year out.

Back in the '80s and '90s, you could hit the quarterback low, you could hit the quarterback high. You could hit him pretty much late.

When you're on the road, you have to be louder and you have to communicate. That's really the bottom line.

My biggest hobby is playing golf, which I really enjoy. Now when I am lying in bed at night, unable to sleep, I find myself thinking about my golf swing. I'm also involved in the Tampa Bay chapter of First Tee.

When I came back, I wasn't looking past this year. This is a bonus for me. I just wish it would have turned out a little better, but we all don't get what we want all the time.

Obviously, we're going to miss him (Glenn). But at the same time we have to move on. That's how we operate here.

If we can go into Atlanta and get this win however we can do it, we'll be right back in the mix.

I have a lot of concern that he'll be OK. It's just hard to see not only a teammate, but a very close friend get hurt the way he was.

I feel great -- after that win. It was a great homecoming. I couldn't have asked for anything more than the way it went.

If that was my last pass, it was a great way to end my career. It's been great for me to play football where I grew up. I always dreamed about becoming a New York Jet football player.

Knowing his past history ... I was very concerned.

Just to get in and play, for me you couldn't have scripted a better ending.

I thought Brooks did a fantastic job. He showed he can play and he got the team to believe in him.

Jeremy was actually with the Cleveland Browns when I was there. His father was a defensive coach, Jim Bates. Jeremy was actually a ball boy when I was there. He was 15-years old. We had a good laugh upstairs a little while ago.

I said, 'Hey Herm, don't feel like you owe me anything. This last year was like a bonus, I'm happy to be here.

Really, you just hold your breath and hope that he's okay and that it wasn't a concussion. I kind of had one eye on him and one eye on the field because it was obviously a critical situation for us to win the game there. But I guess you could say that we lost on both ends today - losing Wayne and the game.

Somehow we just have to hold it together. Sometimes when you have adversity it brings along special moments in life. Hopefully this can be one of them.

It couldn't have gone down any better than this.

I think I was under center for the Jets in that one. I was backing up a kid named Joe Namath, who is probably the only man in the world who makes me look fast.

You had a great career. Let's not take any more hits to the head.

Putting the game aside, it felt good to get back in there. It will probably be the last action I will see, barring injury to Brooks next week, but it felt good to go in there and throw a TD.

As players, we play for now. Maybe someone else is looking at that. But as a player, you don't know if you're going to be here next year or not.

This is big. Just coming home, running on the field and everybody giving me an ovation, it's one of those things you never forget. You remember that for the rest of your life. It sends chills through my body.

It's a good day for a lot of reasons.

I told him that if I get in the game, he's going to come out of the tunnel, I'm going to overthrow everybody and hit him in the end zone. He said he was afraid he was going to drop it, though.

It's inexcusable. It's unfortunate, but when those situations come up we have to go on as if nothing ever happened with Kevin.

They can't take this away. Even though the season hasn't gone the way the team would want it to go, it's been more than I can ask for. The way the fans reacted to me going on the field this year, it's something I'll always remember.

It's not about teaching me how to play quarterback. It's about making us understand what we're trying to get done that week.

If you can be successful on first down, it makes second and third down a lot easier. You want to try to keep the third downs as short as possible, and one way to do that is to be successful on first downs.

If you look at our division, it's up for grabs. Right now, even with us at 2-5, we still have a good chance to win it.

I remember getting chills after the game. I'm getting chills right now, just talking about it.

I know it's early. But this is probably the best defense I've ever been around.

By the time we realized, 'Hey, we can still play,' we lost a few games. At the end of the year, if we win one more game, we're in the playoffs. Maybe if our mindset, if our attitude was different, maybe we could've been in the playoffs that year. Let's hope we learned a lesson from that.

If I didn't have high expectations I wouldn't have come back here. I think the defense is playing outstanding. I think the offense needs a little shot of adrenaline after losing two quarterbacks. Get the air back in the balloon. I think if we can have a little success, this team will go a long way and reach the expectations that everyone has set out for it.

I appreciate the Jets allowing me to move on with my career. I want to thank the organization for giving me the chance to play in my hometown. It's been a great experience. We had some exciting moments on the field and memories I can take with me.

Nobody is expecting us to do anything. We can't let that perception become our reality, because with the ability on this team, if everybody can pick it up a notch, we'll be fine. It's not going to be Brooks coming in saving the day, or myself. It's got to be everybody as a unit playing consistent. If it happens, it's going to be great. It will be something like I've never experienced.

Sometimes you have to win ugly.