He was headed toward the press room, where he would speak to reporters for the first time since his heartbreaking Achilles tendon injury during the New York Jets' 30-28 season-opening loss to the Patriots on Sunday.

	When Vinny Testaverde was carted off, much of the Jets' optimism about 1999 went with him.

"How are you guys doing?" a remarkably upbeat Testaverde asked a couple of reporters he spotted in the hallway.

As if it matters how anyone else is doing.

Testaverde, who had 29 touchdown passes, seven interceptions and a 12-1 record as the starter in his 1998 Pro Bowl season, had become entrenched as the one player the Jets couldn't win without.

Yet he's now out for the season, having undergone successful surgery Sunday night at Lenox Hill Hospital in Manhattan.

On Monday, he spoke about a number of things, the most important of which was that he believes the Jets can still win the Super Bowl without him.

"I'll miss the season after so much work traveling back and forth to Tampa in the offseason (to work out), minicamps, training camp, preseason games ... finally, everything was in position to go, it looked good ... and then, this happens," Testaverde said. "It's not really shock. It's very disappointing."

For Testaverde, the injury is just another setback in a football career marked by his patience and perseverance.

"Thinking back to high school, I didn't play until my senior year," he said. "There was a kid ahead of me, so I had to wait patiently. I went to prep school because my grades weren't good enough, and that was another obstacle. I went to college and waited two years before I played. Then, I went on to the pros and played for 12 years, with the 12th being my best year.

"It seems like an eternity for good things to happen and go the way I finally want them to," he added. "And, even after that, there were still people who thought (1998) was a fluke and had doubts. But I don't think it's a fluke by any stretch of the imagination. Good things happened to me because of perseverance. Once again, I just have to stay mentally sharp and focused."

This is what the Jets collectively must do if they're even going to have a chance at a playoff berth, let alone make the run at the Super Bowl as they were expected to.

Jets plot new flight plan
For the Jets, life without Testaverde all began with Monday's meetings.

Rick Mirer is the Jets' starter, Ray Lucas is the backup and Tom Tupa, who performed remarkably in emergency duty Sunday, is the emergency No. 3.

Coach Bill Parcells was adamant about how futile he believes it would be to bring in another veteran quarterback at this stage.

"Who is it?" Parcells asked of a prospective new quarterback. "They're not just growing out there. They're just not out there. You can't just keep finding guys to put in that role that you feel that good about. I'm going to have to go with what I have right now. You just can't dial a quarterback into the system."

Asked about bringing back Jeff Hostetler, one of his former Giants quarterbacks, Parcells indicated he doesn't consider the 38-year-old Hostetler, who hasn't played since 1997, an active player.

"He's 38 years old. I don't think so, not right now," Parcells said. "This is kind of why I traded for Rick, in the event something happened. I've got to try to work this guy in and go with Ray as the backup.

"I'm pretty well committed to the guys we have here right now, to at least give them the opportunity."

	“	I heard something like someone falling behind me. I turned around within a split-second and thought someone fell behind me and hit my ankle. Then, I thought of my Achilles and the season being over. ”
		— Vinny Testaverde

Asked if he believes Mirer will embrace the opportunity the way he did when he came to the Jets as a journeyman quarterback, Testaverde said, "Yeah I do."

"I'll go further than that," he added. "I go back to last year when Glenn Foley got injured and the team rallied around me. I know there's a confidence that the team will rally around Rick and continue to make good things happen. I'll try and help Rick as much as possible.

"There's no question they can win (without me). It's a team game. No one player has that much of an impact on the team. If any one player did have that kind of impact, you'd see (John) Elway and (Dan) Marino winning the Super Bowl year after year. It takes an entire team. This team has high expectations from from the media and fans, and it's not just because of one player."

"Last year, Elway missed four games and (the Broncos) won all four of them. If you're talking about the Jets as a Super Bowl contender, they have to go play without some of their players at some point. Right now it's without me, Leon Johnson and Wayne Chrebet."

Chrebet, the Jets' starting receiver, is expected to miss another five games with a broken bone in his left foot. Like Testaverde's injury, it was sustained in a freakish non-contact situation.

A tough break
Here's how Testaverde described the injury:

"We had a running play. I handed off the ball to Curtis (Martin), and he got it clean and fumbled as he got hit. I pushed off to get it, and I heard something like someone falling behind me. I turned around within a split-second and thought someone fell behind me and hit my ankle. Then, I thought of my Achilles and the season being over."

As for Testaverde pounding his fist into the turf, he said he wasn't in physical pain, but was distraught because he knew his season was over.

"I was never in pain at all until I reached the locker room, and then I had a short period where there was some discomfort. On the field it was just knowing my season was over. It was just frustrating to me."

Asked if he's depressed, Testaverde said, "I refuse to think that way. What I have is repairable."

The new pilot
The question is this: Is the Jets' season repairable with Mirer at the helm?

To compare Mirer's career to that of Testaverde's is a mistake.

Though he came here as a maligned player, Testaverde came to New York as an established NFL starter, with some pretty good numbers despite playing for some poor teams.

People tended to associate Testaverde only with his Tampa Bay years. But since he left the Bucs, Testaverde came to the Jets as a guy who had thrown more touchdowns than interceptions in four of five seasons. Then came last season, his career year.

Mirer, who also has played with some bad teams, hasn't established himself anywhere, compiling a 20-34 record as a starter and throwing just 41 touchdowns and 62 interceptions with a QB rating of 63.4.

Testaverde's worst rating in a season since he left Tampa Bay was 70.7 in 1994 with the Cleveland Browns.

Mirer, in completing four of 11 passes for 28 yards and two interceptions against the Patriots, enters Sunday night's game in Buffalo with an almost non-existent 5.3 rating.

"It's a pretty big challenge," Mirer said. "There were high expectations for this team, and now I need to do my best to do what Vinny would do."

Asked about the underachiever tag he carries with him, Mirer said, "I'd like to get that off my back. Vinny and I have had similar early careers. He showed last year that good things can happen."

A defiant locker room
Testaverde said he plans to stay with the Jets for the rest of the season while he rehabs his injury. He also will help out the assistant coaches.

In a strange way, Testaverde said his injury might take some pressure off the team.

"It's good for our guys," Testaverde said. "It takes all the pressure off. After the preseason hype of winning the Super Bowl, this kind of puts us back to where we were a year ago, where people didn't expect much out of us."

Testaverde isn't the only player missing from the Jets' arsenal. New York lost Johnson, an invaluable running back and return specialist, to a season-ending left knee injury. They lost starting nose tackle Jason Ferguson to ankle and knee injuries. And, of course, Chrebet is still out.

Meanwhile, in the Jets' locker room Monday, there was a distinct air of defiance to the notion the team's season is over, as one New York tabloid suggested with its back page headline Monday.

"I didn't bust my ass all offseason to come in here and give up after one week," Jets linebacker Bryan Cox said. "My motivation is because this is what I do for a profession. All I can do is go out and be the best linebacker I can be. I'm not going to line up at quarterback. I'm not going to line up in any other area.

"They're not going to cancel the rest of the season," Cox went on. "I don't care how many injuries you have, it's a part of the game. Yes they're major parts of what we try to do around here. Fact is, this week and every week for the next 17 weeks, the New York Jets are going to play somebody. So to sit here and be gloom and doom and all those things, what is that going to help?"

At this point, the Jets need all the help they can get.

Mark Cannizzaro, who covers the Jets for the New York Post, writes a weekly AFC notebook for ESPN.com.