Giants QB Tommy DeVito on Eagles fans: 'I like a hostile crowd'
Giants quarterback Tommy DeVito warms up before the start of an NFL football game against the New Orleans Saints Sunday, Dec. 17, 2023, in New Orleans. Credit: AP/Matthew Hinton
Standing at his Giants locker on Wednesday, Tommy DeVito challenged Eagles fans.
“I heard it’s a pretty hostile environment, I’m looking forward to it,” DeVito said. “I like to thrive in those environments. It’s fun. It’s part of the game. I like a hostile crowd.”
Even Santa Claus will likely boo DeVito and the Giants in Philadelphia on Christmas Day.
Asked about the most hostile crowd he’s ever faced, DeVito said it was a meeting between Bergen Catholic and his Don Bosco team.
“You ever seen one of those?” DeVito asked. “Fifteen thousand in the crowd, don’t go well. For your family and all.”
Eagles fans are a different group.
“Hey, I’ll say Merry Christmas right back and that’s that,” DeVito said.
At least he hasn’t lost his confidence.
The Eagles defeated the Giants in all three meetings last season.
Asked how big a win over Philadelphia would be, DeVito said, “It’ll be huge. I think all wins are huge, obviously, but you know, when you’re coming off a loss like we did last week it’ll make that win that much better.”
The Giants lost Sunday to the Saints, 24-6.
“I don’t know, I’ve never played against the Eagles before in the league so my slate at the moment is 0-0,” DeVito said. “So, I look forward to going out and just trying to be 1-0.”
Of the Eagles defense, DeVito said they are “good.”
“They’re a good team. They’ve got a good defensive line,” he said, “but at the same time, not everybody’s Superman, so go out and handle business.”
It’s safe to assume that DeVito remains confident in his team and in himself.
“Yeah, I think that’s part of the quarterback position,” he said. “Whether it’s defeats, interceptions, missed throws, whatever it is, it’s always the next play mentality. When it comes to games, it’s next game mentality.”
Asked how his rookie quarterback is holding up, coach Brian Daboll said, “He’s doing OK, yep.”
When DeVito was asked about his confidence level, he also chose a brief response.
“High.”
It never wavers?
“It does not.”
Since the media last spoke with DeVito in the locker room, he has learned about the business of football.
After the win over the Packers, DeVito was scheduled to make an appearance at Coniglio’s Old Fashioned pizzeria in Morristown, New Jersey. But the restaurant canceled after the appearance fee DeVito would receive was doubled to $20,000. The restaurant went public with that information, which did not reflect well on DeVito.
This past Tuesday, DeVito visited the pizza shop and took no fee.
DeVito said he will continue to keep Sean Stellato as his football agent. He has hired Maxx Lepselter as his marketing agent.
For the entire DeVito family, this season has represented a learning experience,
“Everything you do is under a microscope times a hundred, even more now,” DeVito said. “Anything that happens is going to be in some kind of article somewhere, like how this happened. I’m sure if this happened a month ago, it probably wouldn’t have happened how it did, but it did.”
DeVito said he became used to getting attention through high school and college.
“I know how it is at the quarterback position no matter what level it is,” he said. “Obviously, now it’s more, but you’ve got to be yourself and be a good person at all times.”
Kimberly Jones covers the Giants for Newsday, a beat she first worked in the early 2000s before joining the YES Network to cover the Yankees. She worked for the NFL Network for more than a decade and has been heard semi-regularly on WFAN.
