It’s official: Devitomania is running wild.
Giants underdog quarterback “Tommy Cutlets” DeVito, 25, had his national coming out party last night leading his squad to a thrilling last-second win over the Green Bay Packers on Monday Night Football — the team’s third win in a row.
And splashed all over the primetime broadcast were DeVito’s colorful family: his brother Max, mom Alexandra and dad Tom, a third-generation plumber, flanked by the athlete’s flamboyant agent Sean Stellato, who looks like he raided John Gotti’s wardrobe.
Tom Sr. and Stellato celebrated DeVito’s big moment by planting big kisses on each other’s cheeks, sending clips of the moment boomeranging around social media.
New York, and now the rest of America, has fallen in love with the unlikely hero —not just because he’s added to the Win column but because he and his family are dripping with Jersey red-sauce charm and bringing the gabagool to the gridiron.
Tom Sr., fresh off hosting an Italian-feast tailgate for 300 friends, said the world now knows his son isn’t “a novelty act.”
“You saw this kid is an NFL quarterback — and a starting-caliber NFL quarterback at that,” the proud papa told The Post “It’s no secret. He can make every throw on the field and everybody sees it. He could do it with his legs. He can lead.”
After the game, DeVito’s proud parents took pictures with fans.
“By the time we got out, [DeVito] just wanted to get home and he just had the window down and everybody’s screaming at him, and then 15 minutes later we saw him at home,” Tom Sr. said.
Life surely is different these days for the Cedar Grove, NJ, phenom who’s living out a Garden State fairytale.
In a horrific Giants season marred by injuries, ugly play and an alarming amount of losses, the third-string quarterback is an unexpected silver lining.
His impressive play is great, but you’ve also gotta love the kid’s embrace of his Italian-American heritage. He’s become a hero in a giant, diamond-encrusted “TD” chain: rating bolognese and linguine with clams with Tiktok star Danny Mondello aka Cugine, staging autograph signings at Primo’s sub shop in Wayne, celebrating touchdowns with the Italian finger-purse gesture.
Even his agent fits the fuhgeddaboutit ethos.
“Let me tell you something — that guy is who he is,” Tom Sr. of Stellato, who wore a pinstriped three-piece suit, turtleneck and fedora to last night’s game. “He dresses like that all the time. He’s flamboyant, he’s got style, his clothes cost a fortune, his shoes cost a fortune, and he can pull it off. He’s a man of faith, he’s a man of God.”
The ball was first handed off to the unknown, un-drafted free-agent rookie last month after a pile-up of injuries — after back-up Tyrod Taylor went down against the Jets and starter Daniel Jones tore his ACL playing against the Raiders.
The Giants’ season went from grim to grimmer. But the world hadn’t yet experienced the charm and confidence of Devito.
Fans’ curiosity perked up in the lead up to his first start, against the Cowboys, when it was revealed that the 25-year-old lives at home with his parents, about 10 miles from MetLife Stadium and the team’s practice facility.
“I don’t have to worry about laundry, what I’m eating for dinner, chicken cutlets, and all that is waiting for me when I get home,” he told ESPN.
“I still have my mom make my bed. I’ve got everything taken care of. Sincerely, I’m not sure if I could find a place that is closer to here than my current residence. My trip here takes me 12 minutes.”
After that interview, the nickname “Tommy Cutlets” was born.
As for Alexandra’s recipe, Tom Sr. says no dice. “Secret. She will not give it out.”
But family friend Frank DeBlasio was more loose-lipped.
“It’s pretty much egg, and breadcrumbs. The deli slices them extra thin for her. She usually gets them five pounds at a time [from Buono’s Italian deli in Little Fall],” he told The Post. “Lexi’s alway making chicken cutlets. [Devito] likes the chicken cutlets with the vodka sauce on it.”
If Tommy Cutlets’ improbable story seems like a script cooked up by Hollywood, his parents’ origin story sounds like a Bon Jovi song.
The pair first met in a Roy Rogers parking while passengers in separate Corvettes.
Tom Sr., now 56, spotted his future wife while cruising the avenue in his hometown of Bloomfield. He made his friend turn his sports car around to find the blonde in the blue Corvette, which led them to the fast-food joint.
It was “pretty much love at first sight,” Tom Sr. said of Alexandra, originally from Livingston, NJ.
“I was a bodybuilder back in my day, and we had it all going on, and she had the big hair.”
DeVito is their firstborn, and the couple set his destiny early.
Tom Sr. told WFAN that they were going to name the boy Dante, but switched to Tommy so his initials would be “TD” — as in touchdown. They also scheduled his birth, choosing August as the delivery date in a nod to the seven points of a touchdown.
DeVito showed early promise and a strong arm, according to his Aunt, Laura Hessel, 64.
“My brother [Tom], just saw that. They’d always be playing catch. The kid always had football on his mind. Tommy was never one for video games. He was always outside with the ball,” said Hessel who described her nephew as “clean cut and strait-laced.”
DeBlasio echoes the sentiment: “Tommy’s a good kid. He’s very intelligent. He likes to joke around. Tommy didn’t have much of a childhood — 24/7 football camps, 24 months a year. He didn’t hang up the cleats after the season.”
DeVito played at Don Bosco Prep in Ramsey, where his coach Ignacio Urbina said he always had confidence.
“He always had that swagger, you know, that’s taken the area by storm,” Urbina told The Post. “He never had that ‘Tommy Cutlets’ thing going on, but he had that confidence that those good quarterbacks always have.”
In college, DeVito played at Syracuse, then transferred to the University of Illinois for the 2022 season, where he started all 13 games. Being a Jersey kid, he signed with the Giants, though he was reportedly offered more money by the Commanders.
DeBlasio said DeVito has thrown his whole life into the sport, forsaking other distractions. “[His father told me] he’s never had a beer in his life,” he said.
That’s also left him little time for dating. Though DeBlasio said DeVito once had a “beautiful girlfriend, he’s 1702435604 single.”
And Hessel is proud of how her nephew is seizing his moment.
“He’s handling everything very well given how big it’s gotten,” said Hessel. “He’s meant to be out on that field.”
Additional reporting by Joshua Rhett Miller
Read more
