Vinny Testaverde...another HOF argument

Fair statement on them being up 10-0 in the 1998 AFC championship game, but if that is the highwater mark of his playoff experience...well that ain't good.

 

If Testaverde and Kerry Collins are both compilers, Collins might have him beat for any HOF argument:

- Collins got the Giants to a Super Bowl in 2000
- He didn't kill himself through alcoholism
- His teammates didn't kill him after he was dropping n-bombs at a bar once with them.

Guy is a survivor.

 

One thing you can say for Collins, when he and the Giants went to the Super Bowl and sat and answered every question about the N-word drama and his battle with the bottle. Ray Lewis was at the same Super Bowl and any mention of Atlanta was off limits.

 

um, plenty of doubt, there, bucko. it is the jets, after all.

any, yes, they had a 10-0 lead. but vinny's offense didn't exactly light it up that day. collins, meanwhile, and his offense had no chance vs. the ravens' d in that supe. but collins had a GINORMOUS game in the nfc championship game demolition of the vikings to get the gints there.

for all of the missteps an immature collins took during his first years with the panthers, all chronicled on this thread, he has been nothing but a solid citizen since the giants rolled the dice to give him a second chance in '98 or '99. and accorsi drew a lot of heat for giving collins that second chance and a pretty nice contract, to boot.

in the overall acheme of things, neither kerry nor vinny are anywhiere close to hof-worthy. but in a head-to-head matchup, the teams kerry has started for have been markedly more successful that vinny's. and both are to be admired for overcoming terrible circumstances, personal and otherwise, with their first organizations to become very respectable qbs later in their careers.

 

Of course we can't assume the Jets would have won a matchup that never happened. But you were there. That team was rolling and bursting with an unbelievable confidence. I just cannot foresee a scenario in which Parcells, with the title of Greatest Coach Of All-Time (at least of the Super Bowl era) on the line, doesn't figure out a way for the Jets to destroy the Falcons.

 

Wasn't New York's only TD in that AFC Championship game on a blocked punt?

 

Sorry for the digression, but greatest coach of the Super Bowl era? That seems a bit much. Had the Jets won the Super Bowl that year, Parcells would have been 3-1 in Super Bowls, and his regular-season record to that point would have been 130-92-1 (.585). In terms of winning Super Bowls, Noll (4-0 in Super Bowls) and Walsh (3-0, plus he set up the one Seifert won after Walsh retired) were better, and Gibbs (3-1) was just as good. (Belichick is now 3-1 also.) And in terms of year-in, year-out consistent winning, Shula (.678 winning percentage, 2-4 in Super Bowls) and Landry (.607, 2-3) were better, too, and for longer periods of time.

 

Speaking of Hall of Fame arguments, I was thinking that Bill Parcells will become the first HOF coach in the face mask era who never coached a HOF qb, but there are two others. Any guesses?

 

whatever, who gives a spit? jets fans lean on that 0-0 lead as if they were destroying denver at halftime. but vinny's offense never got anything going all day. and once denver took the lead the jets never challenged. so this notion that those jets were oh-so close is largely a myth. yes, they were within a half of getting there. no closer than the last two jets teams. big whoop.

vinny did not step up in that game. and jets fans like to delude themselves into believing only vinny's opening-day ruptured achille tendon in '99 kept them the supe that season. yeesh...

 

Gibbs?

 

The QB I really wonder about is Mark Brunell. Above .500 record, won 5 playoff games, three pro bowls and a very good TD-INT ratio. Also, he helped make an expansion team viable right away. Shouldn't be a big factor but he is the best QB in that franchises history.

Working against him will be the fact that he never made a Super bowl and he was never great, just very good for a long time. That means the counting stats aren't as high as others who have no shot.

 

Mark Fucking Brunell? You really can't be serious.