Tommy DeVito has made football fun to watch again for Giants fans
Isaiah Hodgins of the Giants celebrates his second-quarter touchdown against the Patriots with teammate Tommy DeVito at MetLife Stadium on Sunday. Credit: Jim McIsaac
Tommy DeVito said he had no idea what to expect from his first home start as the Giants’ quarterback. When he saw the list for pregame player introductions, he probably got an inkling of how the day would play out.
Not only was he the last one called through the tunnel, just after Saquon Barkley — who actually seemed to enjoy being bumped from that place of honor by the undrafted rookie — but whoever typed up the rundown added a flourish to it. Next to DeVito’s name was an emoji.
The emoji.
The fingers pulled together and pointing upward, the gesture he uses to simultaneously celebrate his successes and his heritage. Victor Cruz had the salsa dance. DeVito has this. He is quickly rising to the same folk hero status that other undrafted Jersey kid achieved more than a decade ago.
“I thought that was kind of funny,” DeVito said of the graphic representation of his essence. “It was surreal.”
DeVito, who has become something of an emoji himself in the month or so since he first landed in the otherwise sullen consciousness of New York football to spice things up, said he didn’t know the exact word for that symbol. He just grunted a sound that he thought best approximated it.
“I don’t know if there is a word for it,” DeVito said. “Usually it just pops up. I don’t know. We’ll just keep on rolling with it.”
Some people call it a finger purse. Or a chef’s kiss. Or mono a borsa.
Whatever it is called, the Giants and their fans are lapping it up like the last specks of Sunday gravy on their plate.
After a miserable first couple of months of action that essentially scuttled the season, DeVito has brought something no one could foresee when Daniel Jones, Tyrod Taylor and Jones again suffered the injuries that led to his having to play.
He’s made Giants football molto divertente. Fun to watch.
It’s the Purse of the Bambino.
It helps sustain his cute narrative, of course, that he actually seems capable of playing the position he’s been thrust into. In the last two weeks, he has thrown four touchdown passes with zero interceptions and won both games. On Sunday, in the stadium where he once led Don Bosco to a state championship, where he made his NFL debut against the Jets in late October, he was the only truly entertaining part of an otherwise dreadful 10-7 win over the Patriots.
While New England was shuffling quarterbacks in and out, desperately hoping one of them could simply function, DeVito picked apart Bill Belichick’s defensive schemes by completing 17 of 25 passes (with at least two blatant drops) for 191 yards and a rating of 103.9.
“It was a lot of fun,” DeVito said. “I try to bring that energy all the time. I respect this game so much, but at the same time, it’s a child’s game and I try to have fun like I was when I was a kid, 5 years old, playing with my friends in the backyard.
“I try to bring that to practice every day. It is a job, it is stressful, but we should enjoy it, have fun with it, bring your own confidence and swagger.”
That philosophy certainly is contagious.
“At the end of the day, that’s what it’s all about, that’s how you win games, when you are having fun and have confidence,” said fellow rookie Jalin Hyatt, who caught five passes for a career-high 109 yards on Sunday. “You believe you can win any game when it’s like that. At the beginning of the year, we didn’t.”
“He brings a crazy energy,” receiver Isaiah Hodgins added. “The fans feel it, the players feel it. It’s definitely fun to be out there with him.”
DeVito’s play (plus, ahem, the nine defensive takeaways in the last two games) has changed the dynamic of the Giants’ quarterback plans for this season and possibly next.
His two wins have basically eliminated the team from having a shot at either of the top two consensus passers coming out in this spring’s draft. It also has left the Giants with a decision to make when they return from the bye. Taylor will be eligible to come off injured reserve if his rib injury is healed.
DeVito connected with Hodgins on a 12-yard pass for the Giants’ only TD on Sunday. They celebrated not with a traditional high-five but by touching outstretched hand purses.
“I’d never done it before, so that was my first time,” Hodgins said of the gesture. “I’d seen it before; I just didn’t know what it meant. I told Tommy if I scored I would do it with him. That was fun.”
DeVito was happy to participate in the exchange. And in the stands, there were plenty who pursed along with them, a hundred or so friends and family who came to witness the event and a few thousand others who have joined the clan symbolically.
“Everybody is doing it at this point,” DeVito said. “I’m cool with it. It’s just a vibe. It’s a lot of fun.”
Much like DeVito himself.
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.
