Vinny Testaverde was as resolute as he’s ever been behind center or conducting a locker-room team meeting.
The question, in the wake of Tuesday’s horrifying terrorist acts on Manhattan and Washington, was about whether the NFL should play on this weekend.
And Testaverde yesterday spoke out powerfully for he and his Jet teammates, who are scheduled to play the Raiders on Sunday in Oakland.
“I think all the games should be canceled this week,” Testaverde said at Hofstra, where the Jets work out. “I don’t think anyone wants to play this week. I don’t even understand why we’re here today.”
The sentiment from one corner of the Jets’ locker room to the other was one of a united preference not to play this week.
“It’s hard to say we should be playing,” center Kevin Mawae said. “People in this locker room have neighbors missing. Our children’s friends don’t have moms and dads anymore. As far as this locker room is concerned it’s going to be hard to have us play.
“It’s hard to concentrate,” Mawae went on. “Football is probably the least important thing in the world right now.”
Mawae, the Jets’ player representative, said he’s spoken to Gene Upshaw, the executive director of the NFL Players Association, and voiced the Jets’ desire not to play.
Mawae said Upshaw told him he’s heard similar views from other players from other teams.
Coach Herman Edwards said he’s been “vacillating” on whether the league should play this weekend or not.
“That’s up to commissioner and the owners,” Edwards said. “I’m a steady guy and basically what they want me to do I’ll do. My opinion really doesn’t matter. We’re going to do what’s best for NFL and the United States of America.”
Edwards did, however, say that the longer the league waits to make a decision, it keeps teams like the Jets “in limbo.”
If the games are on for Sunday, the Jets’ schedule would normally have the team flying to Oakland on a charter flight Saturday, and it’s hardly lost on the players that they’d be bound for California, where those four hijacked planes were supposed to be headed.
“My suggestion would be if they’re going to play these games then the only people that should have a say-so are the owners who are traveling, and if that’s the case each owner has to travel with his team – then let them make the decision knowing those parameters,” Testaverde said.
“Even if everything goes accordingly and we get [to Oakland] and we’re safe, by the time we get off that plane we’re all going to be shot just from the nerves and stress. We’ll be exhausted just getting off the plane.”
Meanwhile, at 2 p.m. yesterday, the Jets convened on a practice field behind Weeb Ewbank Hall and attempted to prepare for a game they don’t even know they’ll play.
How was it possible to concentrate on football?
Testaverde said it was “more like going through the motions than anything.”
“We’ve never, in our lifetimes, seen anything like this in this country,” Testaverde said. “What happened is a threat to everybody in America. We’ve been violated.
“For me being a New Yorker, I’m still waiting on calls that I know I’m going to get that family of friends … were in those buildings,” Testaverde continued. “[Playing football] is not what you want to be doing. You want to be mourning the loss of those people and be with your family.
“The last thing you want to do is get on a plane to California when you know all four planes that were hijacked were going to California. So the last thing we want to do is board a plane Friday or Saturday to play a football game in California. Hopefully, the NFL will make a decision that’s best for everybody and cancel the games.”
Edwards said the tragic incident “hits close to home” for his players because it happened so close by.”