Long Island-raised Andre Cisco dreamed of playing for the Jets. He's going to live that dream this season
Andre Cisco of the Jacksonville Jaguars runs onto the field prior to the game against the Las Vegas Raiders at TIAA Bank Field on Nov. 6, 2022. Credit: Getty Images
When the company Myriam Cisco worked for sponsored a carnival-like fan event at the newly built MetLife Stadium a little over a decade ago, she packed up her two kids in the car and headed over to New Jersey from their home in Valley Stream.
“I remember thinking: ‘Let’s go hang out for the day,’” she recalled. “At the time it was just something to do to kind of get out of the house. And it was free.”
Looking back, it was so much more.
That was the day her son Andre Cisco, then just a 9-year-old kid in his second season of organized football, first set foot on an NFL field.
“He was so wowed by that,” Myriam told Newsday in a phone conversation on Wednesday. “I remember him being completely in awe. I remember him saying: ‘Do you think I could play here one day?’ He doesn’t remember because it’s been a long time, but one of the things he did say was ‘I’m going to leave my DNA on the turf.’ He said those exact words to me. He just said it. I don’t know what made him say it, but it always stuck in my head.”
Now Andre Cisco is coming back.
After four years with the Jaguars, the Long Island-produced safety agreed to terms on a one-year deal worth up to $10 million with the Jets as a free agent this week. That field at MetLife Stadium where he first dared to envision himself as an NFL player will now be his home, and he’ll be playing for the team for which he grew up rooting.
“Fifth grade me would be running through a wall right now!” Cisco, who turns 25 later this month, wrote on social media after agreeing to the terms of the contract with the Jets. “ECSTATIC about what’s to come.”
So too are those who remember him darting around the fields of Long Island.
“It’s amazing,” said Anthony Lampasona, who coached Cisco at the Pony level (ages 11 and 12) for the Valley Stream Green Hornets. “Awesome. Absolutely full circle and it couldn’t happen to a nicer young man.”
Back then, Cisco was a quarterback and running back for Lampasona.
“We knew right off the bat we had something special,” he said. “He was the smallest kid on the team but he was also the fastest kid on the team, fearless, and one of the hardest workers. That was something that always amazed me about him was his work ethic… You can still see some of the traits, the body language, from when he was a kid. It’s amazing, It’s a proud moment as a coach.”
Cisco played two years of JV football at St. Anthony’s which is where he converted from offense to defense, then attended IMG Academy in Florida for his junior and senior seasons. From there he was recruited to Syracuse where he was an immediate star. He was the first true freshman in school history named an All-American. After an ACL injury ended his junior year, he became a third-round pick of the Jaguars in 2021.
Despite leaving Long Island as a teenager – and having his mother Myriam since move to Georgia to be with family and closer to his games in Jacksonville – Cisco has continued to nurture his roots in Valley Stream. Last summer he headlined a camp event for youth in the community and spoke with the high school players at Valley Stream Central where Lampasona is now an assistant coach.
“I told him all the kids are revved up because the kids made a bond with him,” Lampasona said. “They can’t wait to see him this year. They are bouncing off the walls.”
Those memories, recent and otherwise, have been caroming around Cisco’s hometown all week. Lampasona said the first thing he texted Cisco upon hearing the Jets news was that he always looked good in green and white, which were of course the colors of his first uniform with the Green Hornets.
And Myriam Cisco has been parsing that family outing to MetLife Stadium with Andre and his big sister Angie.
“When he told me he was going to the Jets I was like, oh my God, this is completely something that he manifested and probably didn’t even realize it,” she said. “I kind of just brushed it off at the time as the excitement of being someplace for the first time and knowing how much he loved football. But I told him when this happened: ‘You know, this is exactly what you always wanted.’ He just laughed.”
That day wasn’t the only time Cisco would envision himself playing for the Jets. The family went to many games at MetLife Stadium and were season-ticket holders for a few years while he was growing up. Myriam canceled that plan once Andre started playing elsewhere.
“Over the years, whenever they’d call and ask me if I would be interested in being a season ticket holder again, I’d just be like ‘Yeah, no,’” she chuckled. “I wouldn’t explain why.”
Perhaps it’s time for them to try again.
Tom Rock began covering sports for Newsday in 1996 and became its NFL columnist in 2022. He previously was Newsday's Giants beat writer beginning in 2008.
