Of the 28 teams that were around for the New York Jets’ first and only Super Bowl triumph back in 1968, the Saints and Falcons were the only ones to win fewer games than the Jets over the next three decades, from 1969 to 1996. They were a doormat. So bringing in a two-time Super Bowl champion coach like the Big Tuna, Bill Parcells, seemed like a shrewd move in 1997.
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After a brutal 1-15 season in 1996, Parcells turned the team around quickly, going 9-7 in 1997. They built on that further in 1998, bringing in veteran QB Vinny Testaverde, who went 12-1 as a starter and served as the catalyst for New York’s successful 12-4 season, which ended with a trip to the AFC Championship Game, Gang Green’s first such appearance (in a non-strike-shortened season) since Broadway Joe’s guarantee thirty years earlier.
With that 12-win season in 1998, Parcells on the sidelines, and Testaverde dealing from the pocket, expectations were sky-high for the Jets in 1999. They started out beautifully too, with Testaverde throwing a 27-yard TD pass to Richie Anderson in the first quarter of the season opener. However, in the second quarter, Testaverde went down on a seemingly innocuous play.
It was clear from his reaction right away: he’d torn his Achilles and would be done for the year. And because of a strange NFL rule that did not allow for an emergency quarterback to be used prior to the fourth quarter, Parcells was forced to put in his punter, Tom Tupa, to play out the game until backup QB Rick Mirer could come in to start the fourth. And Tupa, for lack of a better phrase, balled out.
That time the Jets had to play their punter Tom Tupa at quarterback and he balled out 😤 pic.twitter.com/PGvJ8doPFG
— Football’s Greatest Moments (@FBGreatMoments) August 22, 2025
Tupa went 6-for-10 for 165 yards and a pair of TDs with no interceptions. That performance included a 25-yard TD strike to Keyshawn Johnson on the very next play after Testaverde was helped off the field, as well as a seven-yarder to Fred Baxter to give the Jets a 27-22 lead late in the third quarter. He also added 50- and 65-yard bombs to Johnson in between.
On top of that, he booted three punts for 123 yards, including a 49-yarder. In a sequence we’re sure never to see again in the third quarter of that game, Tupa threw three straight incomplete passes to go three-and-out … before staying on the field to punt the ball away 39 yards, attempting to atone for his mistakes as a QB with his prowess as a punter.
It was a wild move, but not as wild as it seemed. Tupa had been a college quarterback at Ohio State University, and he’d started 11 games for the Cardinals back in 1991, going 4-7.
In the end, Mirer came in during that Week 1 matchup in 1999 and threw two interceptions to give the game away to the New England Patriots, who won 30-28. The Jets went on to start 4-8 behind Mirer. Though they were able to win their final four games to reach 8-8, missing the playoffs by just one game. Perhaps if Tupa is allowed to finish off that Week 1 game, they get that extra win.
But alas, Parcells quit the coaching game after that season. He moved up to general manager of the Jets, though he departed that role a year later. Tupa, for his part, remained with the club through the 2001 season. He moved on to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 2002, with whom he won a Super Bowl.
