Testaverde Finally Passes Pro Test : AFC: Cleveland veteran outplays New England’s young star Bledsoe in 20-13 playoff victory.

For the first time in his professional career Sunday, Vinny Testaverde left a field bearing more than the burden of unfulfilled promise.

For the first time he exited with something other than the baggage of a failed former hero.

For the first time, he walked away carrying a football.

A game ball.

He pressed it to his belly in the final moments of his Cleveland Browns’ 20-13 playoff victory over the New England Patriots, and didn’t let go until safely hiding it under his locker bench.

Eight long years. One measly ball. But what a souvenir it will be.

Years from now Testaverde will be able to show it to his grand children with but one sentence of explanation required.

“This is from the day your Granddad got even.”

Cleveland tackle Tony Jones explained it another way Sunday.

“Vinny showed up today,” Jones said in a rising voice that matched the obvious amazement of the 77,452 witnesses in Cleveland Municipal Stadium. “Vinny showed up big time.”

Testaverde, the 22nd-ranked quarterback in a 28-team league, showed up with not only his arm, but his legs, his mind and his fortitude.

He will, of course, have to show up again if the Browns hope to have a chance Saturday in a second-round game at their AFC Central rival’s home in Pittsburgh.

The Steelers have already defeated the Browns twice this year, intercepting Testaverde six times in the two games while yielding only two touchdown passes.

“When did I start thinking about Pittsburgh?” asked Testaverde after his first playoff game. “I was thinking about them as I knelt down to kill the clock at the end of this game.”

He admitted, though, that before that, the game of his life was also the time of his life.

He threw for 268 yards without an interception. He rushed for 19 yards that didn’t include the huge swaths he cut while scrambling.

And, oh yes, he threw a first-half touchdown pass to give the Browns their first lead, then completed 11 consecutive passes midway through the game to lead the Browns to the go-ahead score in the third quarter.

Drew Bledsoe, New England’s more celebrated quarterback, did nothing of the kind.

“He’s never been in a game like this before, and we knew it,” said Cleveland linebacker Pepper Johnson of Bledsoe.

So the team that led the league in fewest points allowed fooled Bledsoe with blitzes, zone coverages and all sorts of surprises that led to three interceptions and a terrible second half in which he was 10 for 26 for 96 yards.

Bledsoe finished with 50 attempts, one touchdown pass, and one horrendous overthrow of Ray Crittenden in the final minute at the Brown 35-yard line.

The Patriots had just kicked a field goal, recovered an onside kick, and were driving for the tying touchdown into the teeth of the screaming, barking crowd.

On third down from the Patriot 48, Crittenden streaked open across the middle. And Bledsoe missed him.

“If we hit that, you never know,” said Patriot Coach Bill Parcells.

One wobbly, hurried pass later, Bledsoe’s afternoon ended, his game quarterback rating at 41. Testaverde’s was 106.

“Right now, it feels like a disaster,” Bledsoe said.

The Patriots, football’s darlings after seven consecutive victories, had to abruptly step aside for a guy who hasn’t been anybody’s darling since Jan. 2, 1987.

That was when Testaverde, the newly crowned Heisman Trophy winner, threw five interceptions against Penn State in the Fiesta Bowl to cost the University of Miami a national championship.

Remember that game, Vin?

“Think about it every day,” he said.

He thinks about it so much, he admitted, that he used it as motivational tool before this game.

“In my other big games in college, I was nervous, tense, unfocused,” he said. “I told myself that if I ever got into a big game again, I would go out and have fun.”

He proved that from the Browns’ first possession to their clinching touchdown.

They scored the first time they were given the ball, with Matt Stover’s 30-yard field goal capping a 10-play drive that featured 62 yards’ worth of passes from Testaverde.

Those included a pass off a scramble, a pass off a perfectly executed reverse fake, and a 12-yard pass that was placed just so diving Michael Jackson--and not defender Ricky Reynolds--could catch it.

“Vinny exceeded everyone’s expectations today . . . outside of our organization,” said Jackson, who caught seven passes for 122 yards.

After Bledsoe led the Patriots to a 10-10 halftime tie, Testaverde tucked the game away as he later did that ball.

The clinching touchdown, on a 10-yard run by Leroy Hoard with 2:21 remaining in the third, was set up by a brilliant 25-yard scrambling dump pass to Hoard and two bullets to Jackson.

Leading, 17-10, the Browns added their final score on Stover’s second field goal (21 yards) after Eric Turner intercepted a pass that was thrown too hard and too far behind Kevin Turner, who watched it bounce off his fingers.

The cheers still in their ears, the confetti still on their shirts, the Browns said they were actually looking forward to playing a team that has outscored them, 34-17, this season.

“Right now, we feel unbeatable,” said Johnson, who also had an interception. “We feel we have the kind of team now that can go in and beat Pittsburgh.”

The unspoken reason rests inside that soft-spoken quarterback. Hopeless Vinny Testaverde has given the Browns a reason for hope.

Imagine that.