Tom DeVito used to watch “Monday Night Football” with his son Tommy.
On this Monday night, father got to watch son Tommy quarterback the New York Football Giants against the Packers with America watching along with him.
“I just want them to see that he’s a leader,” Tom DeVito told The Post. “I want them to see that he can be counted upon. And that’s the most important part about playing quarterback, is the leadership role.”
This was a little past noon and Tom DeVito was at his house in Cedar Grove, N.J. And so was Tommy DeVito. Who, as everyone knows, lives with his parents.
“Tommy’s actually home right now,” the father said. “He came back from the [team] hotel, he comes home, plays with his dog, decompresses, and then he goes back.”
Ah, the perks of being a proud father.
“He won’t read anybody’s texts 24 hours before the game,” Tom DeVito said. “I’ll have to see him and I just give him a quick word, one or two words I say, and that’s it. I’m his fan and his father now, I’m far, far removed from being his coach.”
So what was Tom DeVito planning on telling Tommy DeVito?
“I’m gonna tell him, ‘You gotta rally your troops,’ ” he said. “Every week it’s different, you know? This is ‘Rally the troops. It’s Monday night. You guys haven’t played well in prime time and this is your chance for redemption, the whole team.’ They haven’t played well on Monday night, or any prime-time game as of late. So enough is enough. … If you’re the leader, you gotta motivate them. I saw Saquon’s been firing up the troops … attitude is everything in this game ’cause everybody’s pretty good.”
Tom DeVito was busy rallying his own troops, approximately 300 family and friends, at Lot G16 in the MetLife parking lot with national and local television networks eating it all up in the hours before his son would be trying to rally his.
“We’re giving the whole Italian show,” Tom DeVito said. “It’s gonna be craziness. We’re gonna give ’em the Italian theater they’ve been asking for. Three hundred chicken cutlets, got Italian sandwiches, baked ziti, sausage and peppers, rice balls — everything Italian. I’m gonna have my guys setting up sandwiches with Italian headbands on. We got an Italian flag with Tommy’s picture on it. They’ve been begging for it. We’re gonna give it to ’em.”
What a whirlwind this has been since Jersey Guy Tommy DeVito became the talk of all the towns in and around Cedar Grove.
“I always knew he had the talent to play at this level,” Tom DeVito said, “but I never could ever fathom the instant fandom that he has everywhere. … Some people aren’t always happy for somebody, if they win the lottery or if something good happens, but I have to say, just about everybody I’ve come in contact with, it’s so genuine … you hold back tears in your eyes because you see how genuine and happy they are.”
Everyone loves an underdog story, and especially a fearless, humble, undrafted underdog who has embraced the biggest moments of his young football career.
“He plays with a calm and a poise,” Tom DeVito said. “He’s confident in his skill set. I have to calm myself down. … ‘You know he’s good, just be confident,’ I have to talk myself into ‘Just trust it, trust it, don’t hyperventilate here.’ (Chuckle) That’s what I have to do to myself. I just trust him. The team plays as a unit, they’re gonna go well. He can definitely pull the trigger, that’s for sure.”
The boy always could.
“It started in flag football, but I’d say it was fourth-grade year,” the proud father said, “about 8 years old. He threw a couple of touchdown passes and they got that little Mayor’s Trophy ’cause we played our rivals.”
That was for the Cedar Grove Junior Panthers. Seventeen years later, this would be the New York Football Giants. And that was Tom DeVito and his wife Alexandra in the stands watching a fairy tale continue.
“She’s so nervous for him,” Tom DeVito said, “so as parents, no one wants their kids to feel pressure, we want to help them. But we can’t help him out there. So we’re just rooting hard and hopefully he doesn’t let the fans down or the team down and that’s our main concern. She’s a little bit more worried about his health — dads aren’t so worried about their sons.”
The boy’s dedication and commitment to quarterback was eye-opening from the beginning.
“You have no idea the work that this kid put in,” Tom DeVito said. “He gave up baseball 11 years old — he was a terrific pitcher — because two different mechanics. He would train three days a week year round for quarterback.”
For Tommy DeVito, it was one step at a time: win a state championship for Don Bosco Prep, play Division I football (Syracuse, Illinois) next.
“He just had a naturally strong arm since he was 5 years old,” Tom DeVito said. “I’ll never forget, it was flag football, and they had him play actually running back, and he had a halfback option pass and he threw the ball, and one of the other coaches was ‘Who threw that?!’ Tommy’s talent was so evident that he quickly became a quarterback.”
Chef’s kiss gestures everywhere in prime time.
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