It’s been seven-plus years since Vinny Testaverde endured the over-the-top ridicule from frustrated Tampa Bay football fans, who blamed him for everything from football losses to the poor design of the Buccaneers’ uniforms and helmets to the hot and muggy weather.

On Sunday, Testaverde goes home.

When the 3-0 Jets play the 3-0 Buccaneers at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, it’ll mark the first time he’ll have played a regular-season game in Tampa since he was last a member of the Bucs, in 1992.

It, too, will enable to Testaverde to visit his real home, a beautiful enclave of property located about 15 minutes from the stadium where the Testaverde family basks in the offseason with a swimming pool, tennis court and state-of-the-art indoor workout facility and huge back yard.

Testaverde, whose career is so far removed from those awful days in Tampa, said yesterday that he believes the emotions won’t be flowing with any added force when he takes the field. Nor, he added, will any bitterness he might have had toward the masses that blamed him solely for all the losing.

“I think it’s just going to be another game for me,” Testaverde said. “The way I approach every game, I’m so focused on what I have to do as a quarterback to help my team win that everything else doesn’t matter or distract me.”

Testaverde, who’s become a much better quarterback since those Tampa Bay days, was more introspective about what happened there than bitter about it.

“When I played in Tampa, we were a young team and we were inexperienced,” he said. “We weren’t very good to be honest with you. I was the same way. I was young and I was inexperienced.”

Testaverde spent six seasons in Tampa and his name became synonymous with the word interception. He threw 87 touchdown passes and 112 interceptions as a Buccaneer. In his second year, his first as the full-time starter, he threw 35 picks and only 13 touchdowns.

Tampa Bay, it should be noted, had a 28-67 record in Testaverde’s six seasons after going 2-14 in three of the four years before be was drafted. So it obviously wasn’t the quarterback.

Steve Young, remember, was a flat-on-his-face failure in Tampa, too. He’ll be inducted into the Hall of Fame soon.

“Over time, with experience, I think I’ve become a much better quarterback,” Testaverde said.

The numbers back that up. In the seven-plus seasons since he escaped from Tampa Bay, Testaverde has thrown 133 touchdown passes and 82 interceptions.

“The things I went through in Tampa have made me a better person and have made me a better player,” Testaverde said. “I don’t think I could have reached this level in my career if I didn’t have some of those experiences that I went through. When you go through things like that it makes you a stronger person.”

Testaverde’s troubles in Tampa make it ironic that he’s chosen to make his home there. But, he insisted, he’s never had a problem with the people there off the field and he sees it as a perfect place to raise his family.

With the Super Bowl in Tampa this January, imagine the irony and reaction if Testaverde were leading his Jets down there as the AFC representative?

“All offseason I heard on the news how the Super Bowl is in Tampa and how it would be great for the Tampa Bay Bucs to be in the Super Bowl, how it would be the first time in NFL history that the host city has a home team playing in it,” Testaverde said.

“But at same time I was thinking, ‘Hey, I’d love to play in it, too. That’s where I started my career. That’s where I live and it would be a great place to play my first Super Bowl as well.’ “

What’ll get the Jets past the Buccaneers’ tough defense Sunday will be a crisper start from Testaverde and the offense and a sustained effort.

Testavderde, who has five touchdown passes and three interceptions this season, knows he’s being compared to his top ’98 form, and he knows things haven’t been nearly as prolific with the 2000 offense sputtering a bit.

He’s produced touchdowns on only 19.4 percent of his drives this season compared to 28.3 percent in ’98. His completion percentage is currently 48.7 percent, well down from his 61.5 percent in ’98.

In fairness to Testaverde, the Jets have won 15 of the 17 games in which Testaverde has started. That 15-2 record is the best in the NFL during that period for QBs with at least eight starts since 1998.

And one of those losses was the Jets’ season opener against New England last September, during which Testaverde was lost for the season to injury in the first quarter of a game the Jets led in the fourth quarter.

“Sometimes you may get frustrated, but I try not to,” Testaverde said. “I try to stay within myself and what I’m trying to do. To this point it’s worked for us. It doesn’t matter what the stats are. The stats may be different, but the W’s are what we want.”