The New York Giants dug deep into their quarterback depth chart Sunday and gave rise to an instant New York folk hero.
Tommy DeVito, a 25-year-old rookie who played at Syracuse and Illinois, made his NFL debut after Tyrod Taylor suffered a rib injury in the first half against the New York Jets. (Taylor was starting in place of Daniel Jones, who’s sidelined with a neck injury.)
DeVito instantly thrilled many New York fans, not with his play, but his name and heritage. The New York area has a sizable Italian-American population, and many of those fans jumped on social media to trumpet DeVito’s NFL debut. By the way, if the name sounds familiar, it was the name of Joe Pesci’s character in the popular 1990 film Goodfellas. Going further back, another Tommy DeVito founded and was lead guitarist of the 1960s pop band, New Jersey’s own, The Four Seasons.
The fact DeVito is a local guy (Livingston, N.J.) only added to the intrigue.
The Giants lost in horrible fashion, as the Jets tied the game at the end of regulation, then won in overtime, 13-10. DeVito had a horrendous stat line, completing 2-of-7 passes for minus 1 yard. He did, however, score his first NFL touchdown on a short run.
Tommy DeVito's first NFL TD gives the Giants the lead!
📺: #NYJvsNYG on CBS
📱: Stream on #NFLPlus https://t.co/Quwvdzpx7G pic.twitter.com/mw7L4q6kg6— NFL (@NFL) October 29, 2023
So even though Giants fans weren’t celebrating DeVito’s game, they loved his name, and had a lot of fun on social media. As one fan aptly noted on X/Twitter, “Things I love about Tommy DeVito: He’s Italian, he’s from NJ and his name is Tommy DeVito Things I don’t love about Tommy DeVito: He’s playing QB for the Giants in a real game.”
Things I love about Tommy DeVito: He’s Italian, he’s from NJ and his name is Tommy DeVito
Things I don’t love about Tommy DeVito: He’s playing QB for the Giants in a real game
— Unbiased Ev (@DoubleVodkaDon) October 29, 2023
That’s a fake name
— Frank Passalacqua (@randomfrankp) October 29, 2023
Tommy DeVito
The Italian Rapscallion pic.twitter.com/GG1IJUbjgc
— Doug Norrie (@DougNorrie) October 29, 2023
“Tommy DeVito” is not an NFL QB he is a New Jersey Italian HVAC specialist or Sopranos side character.
— serb your enthusiasm 🇷🇸🍉 (@markocantdunk) October 29, 2023
Tommy Devito will lead the Giants out of darkness, you know why???
Because he’s the Italian stallion. 🔥 pic.twitter.com/dE7e3PB3tm
— 𝓐𝓷𝓽𝓱𝓸𝓷𝔂🗽 (@Baby__Cruz) October 29, 2023
Tommy DeVito is the most Italian New York sounding name of all time. Long Island gonna go crazy if he has a halfway decent game in place of Tyrod lol.
— austin williams (@austinxwill) October 29, 2023