At the start of practice, the three Giants quarterbacks in red jerseys were tossing the football together in the distance.
One of them was wearing the number 15.
Tommy DeVito survived cutdown day and was named to the Giants' initial 53-man roster.
One small step for Tommy DeVito, one giant leap for cutlet lovers.
The roster maneuvering will give shaky players around the league sleepless nights, but Joe Sean and Brian Daboll shouldn't hesitate to trust Drew Lock and Tommy DeVito as insurance for Daniel Jones.
DeVito's inclusion on the final 53-man roster gives him a chance to play in the season opener as the emergency third quarterback (breaking glass to hand the ball to Tommy Cattletz).
Just a year ago, DeVito was an unknown undrafted free agent out of Cedar Grove, N.J., who failed to survive the cutdown to No. 53 and ended up unpicked and assigned to the practice squad on his path to folk heroism. Placing him on waivers this time around was a gamble the Giants didn't take wisely.
“There's nowhere else he'd rather be,” his agent, Sean Stellato, told The Post. “He loves the fans, he loves his teammates. It means a lot to him, and they believe in him and trust him. At the end of the day, he's proven how tough he is and what a fighter he is. He's a contender when given the opportunity. … 'Hometown boy makes it' is a great story, but the story isn't finished yet.”
Take a 20-minute drive from 1925 Giants Drive and you'll arrive in Cedar Grove, New Jersey, a city that proved a year ago that it's big enough for Aaron Rodgers and Tommy DeVito to live.
Cheers rang out across Cedar Grove, New Jersey, late Tuesday afternoon.
“He's good, he's a local kid. I'm happy for him. I hope he does well. Absolutely,” Sean O'Connor said inside The Fresh Grocer on Pompton Street.
Patty D. said she knows the DeVito family.
“He's a great kid. A really great kid. I'm happy for him,” she said. “I'm not a Giants fan. My husband is. But I became a Giants fan because I support Tommy. So, I gotta support my hometown boy!”
Down the road, at Biollante & Sons, where chicken cutlets are selling like hotcakes, Anthony Biollante told The Post: “I think it's phenomenal. I wish him the best.”
Violante has never met Tommy Cattletz, but was amazed last year by how unblinking he was in the spotlight.
“I'm just a local guy watching a local kid do well and I'm happy for him,” Violante said.
He described a conversation he had with Al Lombardi, who owns Lombardi's, located next door to Fresh Grocer.
“We both said the same thing,” Violante said, “and it just kind of bothered us that everyone was talking about us like we were related. He's been working hard. This is the perfect time for him. I hope he does well and that people start focusing on that instead of what his agent looks like or what he's having for dinner.”
Since the explosive arrival of Tommy Cutlets, sales of chicken cutlets haven't necessarily exploded.
“When we have Tommy Cutlets, people ask about the cutlets – they're a staple for us. We sell thousands of pounds a week. In this part of the country, chicken cutlets are like the potato chips you have for lunch in other parts of the country,” Violante said.
I interviewed Violante last fall at DeVitomania.
“Just a little anecdote,” he said. “My daughter [Giovanna] On Monday morning, she was sitting next to me having breakfast, and she was 11 years old and she said, “What's so great about chicken cutlets?” And I said, “You know, not everyone knows what chicken cutlets are.” She looked all cloudy, and looked at me with a serious face, and said, “Is that from Mars?”
The 14-year-old was dribbling a basketball outside his home. “I remember him talking about him a lot at school, his teachers teaching him and always saying what a good student he was in school and now they're so proud of him,” Kerols Hanna said. “It's been a big journey for him and his life. [fellow Cedar Grove native] David Njoku [Browns TE]”It was thrilling to have two celebrities from Cedar Grove.”
Gabe Primavera, a Giants fan from Verona, was wearing a Yankees cap.
“They should keep him. I like him because he's a scrambler,” he said.
Just a year ago, few knew about DeVito's swagger, his courage and his competitive spirit. Daboll never imagined Tommy DeVito would become the quarterback he wanted to develop.
“I think deep down he was disappointed just wanting to be an active player,” Stellato said, “but at the end of the day, I think it says a lot about a player's character how they react when sometimes we get humiliated or things don't go as planned. Tommy's middle name is 'tenacity.'”
Pinch Finger Festival takes place across Cedar Grove, New Jersey
