Age before beauty: Joe is the man, Vinny a fan Tom Zucco, The St.Petersburg Times, published 1988 Wasn't somebody supposed to remind Joe Ferguson that he's too old and too slow to make it here in the rough-and-tumble NFL? All they had to say was, “Come on, Joe. You're 38. Take your shoes off. Set a spell. You've got that pension, remember?” He'd understand. After all, guys like him should restrict their physical activity to less-strenuous endeavors. Like an occasional racquetball game at the Y. With guys named Lance and Skippy. But Joe Ferguson, who owns socks older than Vinny Testaverde, whose Social Security number is 3, darn near pulled out the game Sunday. And although the Bucs lost another close game and we've seen and heard all this before, this time it really was different. This time, it was interesting. Joe couldn't beat the Miami Dolphins. One guy rarely does. But he didn't lose to them, either. Several of his teammates would see to that. The Bucs wanted to cut down on their interceptions (22 this year), so against the Dolphins, they benched Testaverde and started Ferguson. It worked. They cut down on the interceptions. Ferguson only threw one. Instead, however, the Bucs went shopping for fumbles, and they laid in a supply for the winter. There were four to be exact, and three of them - two by Lars Tate and one by William Howard - led directly to Miami's 17 points. For his part, Ferguson completed 26 of 37 passes for 291 yards and two touchdowns. For a guy who supposedly has the mobility of the Washington Monument (which Joe probably remembers being erected), he looked pretty mobile. He was sacked only once. No, Joe just ran out of time. There he was after the game, standing in front of his locker with a bloody scrape near his left eye, the result of a forearm across his face. He had directed a brilliant fourth-quarter rally that fell short, 17-14. “I came real close to taking a job offer (coaching at Louisiana Tech),” he said. “But I'm glad I didn't. But today,” he sighed, “I wasn't good enough to win.” If there was one play that did him in, it was the last one. There were 59 seconds left. The Bucs had a fourth-and-6 at the Miami 39. Instead of throwing short to a receiver and getting the first down, Ferguson heaved a bomb down the right sideline. Bucs wide receiver Gene Taylor looked the ball in and thought he had a touchdown. Except that Miami safety Bud Brown appeared out of nowhere, knocked the ball away, and sent the fans home. “I'd seen something earlier,” Ferguson said, “something that I thought would work. “Maybe I should've gone to the short guy. I just saw something and I wanted to win the ballgame. It probably was a big mistake on my part.” Okay, but there's a lot to be said for trying. Two years ago, the Bucs went out and spent $8.2-million for Vinny Testaverde. Last year, they picked up Fergie for a song - about $300,000 a season. He was the insurance policy, the designated Vinny-sitter. But nobody figured Vinny would struggle so much that the Bucs would have to cash that policy. “I know Vinny is the future of the team,” Ferguson said. “And if I'm not playing next week, and that's entirely up to coach Perkins, I'll help Vinny as much as I can.” A cynic would say Testaverde is now the world's highest-paid model of football uniforms. Or that he's never going to be as good as Marino or Kosar or all the other QBs he's always compared to. But that's not the case. There were only two things proven Sunday. Joe Ferguson, bless his heart, can still play. And Vinny found out exactly how humbling a place the bench can be. “Standing there was really hard,” he said. “I just felt useless. But I think I got a lot out of it.” Such as? “I learned about being patient and taking what the defense gives you,” he answered. “It's hard to say how much I learned until I go out and play again, but I think I can gain a great deal out of something like this.” And if Ferguson had won the game? “That would've been great,” Vinny answered. “I was probably his biggest fan out there today. I watched him as I grew up. He was one of my idols.” He still should be.