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The original was posted on /r/nfl by /u/Omega43-j on 2025-06-01 05:37:34+00:00.
Welcome back to my inconsistent series of shit posts known as Blast from the Past!
Today I’ll be talking about a former number one overall pick, a guy who bounced around from team to team, redeemed himself then blew it and redeemed himself, then became a fan favorite for a little bit. Kind of weird story arc but Vinny Testaverde’s career was a bit weird. Let’s talk about it…
EARLY LIFE
Vinny was born in Brooklyn, New York and grew up in Elmot and attended Sewanhaka High School. Testaverde was born to be a football player, with his father Al Testaverde his biggest fan. As starting quarterback of Sewanhaka High in Elmont, New York during his senior season, Testaverde racked up almost 700 yards in passing, despite playing in an offensive scheme built around running the veer play.
But he didn’t receive a scholarship to play college ball so he spent two years at a prep school called Fork Union Military Academy. During his two years as starting quarterback for the University of Miami, he led the team to a 21-1 record and set a number of passing records, many of which still stand today, more than two decades later.
He earned and accepted a scholarship to The U. (The University of Miami) He played there from 1982-1986.
COLLEGE YEARS ('82-'86)
Our boy Vinny was buried on the depth chart when he first showed up and subsequently was redshirted his Freshman year. He backed up Miami Legend Bernie Kosar for two years and nabbed the starting gig in 1985.
In 1985, he threw for 3,238 yards, 21 TDs, 15 ints, on 61.4% completion percentage. He led the Hurricanes to a 10-2 record but lost 35-7 to Tennessee in the Sugar Bowl and a number 9 ranking.
In 1986, he improved his numbers in efficiency. Throwing for 2,557 yards, 26 TDs, 9 ints, on 63.4% completion percentage. The Hurricanes posted an undefeated regular season, going 11-0 but ultimately losing to the Nittany Lions in the National Championship game, 10-14. A game in which Testaverde threw 5 ints.
Vinny had a banner year however, winning the Heisman, the Davey O’Brien, the Maxwell, the Sammy Baugh, the Walter Camp award, and was named an All-American.
He was inducted into the Miami Hall of Fame in 1998 and the College Football Hall of Fame in 2013. Not bad Vinny.
The Draft
Standing in at 6 foot 4, weight 215 pounds, and running a 4.75 40 yard dash, Vinny had hype around him heading into the 1987 draft. He was actually the first QB to score a 10.00 RAS, whatever the hell metric that is. Withe the first overall pick, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers selected Testaverde to save their struggling franchise.
(Unfortunately, it’s really hard for me to find certain articles in Europe and especially so pre-2000s about players. That’s about as much as I could find)
NFL Career ('87-'07)
As I stated above, Vinny started his career with Buccaneers. He had a mixture of good, bad, and holy hell that’s dog-water.
His rookie year, he only started 4 games, not winning one of them, and threw 5 tds to 6 ints. With the team favoring Steve DeBerg over their shiny draft pick. (It was also the strike season so take that for what you will.)
Well the shine wore off quickly as Testaverde was thrusted into the starting role the following year. Finally, he’d have a chance to prove why he was taken first overall, why we won all of those awards in college, why he should’ve been the day one starter by throwing…35 interceptions?! Holy cow.
In 1988, a radio station in Tampa rented a billboard that had Testaverde standing in front of a blue background. The billboard read: “Vinny thinks this is orange!”
He completed a pedestrian 47% of his passes for 13 tds and 3,240 yards and, I guess you could call it leading, lead his team to a 5-10 record.
He stayed in Tampa for another 4 years but he never lead them to a winning record and never threw more touchdowns than interceptions. His paltry play led him to being benched, ridiculed, named the starter again, and snip-snap back all over again.
CLEVELAND BROWNS ('93-'95)
He signed as an unrestricted free agent with The Browns to play for Bill Belichek and he actually saw decent success there in 3 years.
His best year (not statistically) was in '94 when he led them to a 9-4 record as a starter and into the playoffs. They won a Wild Card game against the Patriots but got bounced by the Steelers in the Divisional.
BALTIMORE RAVENS ('96-'97)
Vinny boy saw the team move from Cleveland to Baltimore and he went on to absolutely explode. He played great and had arguably his best season of his career throwing for 4,177 yards, 33 tds to 19 ints and was named to a Pro-Bowl but unfortunately the team only went 4-12.
He signed a 4 year deal after the season however, he struggled the following year throwing 15 ints and lost the fan base as his backup, Eric Zeir won over the fans when he won two games in place of the injured Testaverde.
The team traded for Jim Harbaugh and released Testaverde.
NEW YORK JETS ('98-'03)
Va-va-va Vinny and the Jets! What is it with him going on a tear his first year with a team? He balled out again. He went 12–1 in 13 games as a starter, completing 61.5% of his passes with 29 touchdowns, seven interceptions, and a 101.6 quarterback rating, making the Pro Bowl for the second time. The Jets won the AFC East and earned a first round bye and beat the Jaguars in the Divisional. Unfortunately they lost to the eventual SuperBowl Champions, the Broncos, in the AFC Championship game.
The following year, was a big let down. The Jets came into the year with SuperBowl hopes and dreams but saw them quickly fade away like a vapor trail when Vinny blew his Achilles in the first game of the season. (This story sounds familiar…) Shame…
He did lead the Jets to another playoff appearance, going 9-7 in his return season and again in the following season.
In '02 when the Jets flopped out to a 1-3 start, he was benched in favor of Chad Pennington and he had to find a new home at the end of the following season.
DALLAS COWBOYS ('04)
Welp, Vinny wasn’t expected to be the starter here but here we are. After Quincy Carter was abruptly cut from the team for allegedly failing a drug test, Vinny was thrown into the starting role. A lot of people were concerned because, well, he was 40 years old at this point and was basically a statue in the pocket. But Vinny did fine!
The old man put up 3,500 yards, 17 tds and 20 ints. I mean it’s not amazing but ain’t half bad for the geezer.
Head Coach Bill Parcells was cited as saying that he was instrumental in developing young, Tony Romo.
THE FINAL YEARS ('05-'07)
He spent his last 3 years with the Jets, New England, and famously, the Panthers.
I say famously because he started 6 games for them as a 44 year old and I remember him being all over Sports Center during this time. I belive it spawned a segment of them talking about old QBs who could still sling it and they even brought Jeff George on the show so he could show off his arm.
CLOSING THOUGHTS
But anyway, Vinny retired at the end of the 2007 season and I think he had a good career. In all, he threw for 46,233 yards, 275 tds, 267 ints, and had a Win-loss record of 90-123-1.
Thank you for reading this post. Hopefully I killed some time for you in the boring offseason! If you got a recommendation for a player, all I ask is that they aren’t in the Hall of Fame and have been retired for at least 10 years
Career highlights: youtu.be/TZ4HE1TP5XI