In the distance at the beginning of practice, three Giants quarterbacks in red jerseys were throwing the football around together.
One of them was wearing No. 15.
Tommy DeVito survived cutdown day and made the initial 53-man Giants roster.
One small step for Tommy DeVito, one giant leap for cutletkind.
Roster machinations will cause players on the bubble around the league sleepless nights, but Joe Schoen and Brian Daboll should not be reluctant to trust Drew Lock and Tommy DeVito as their insurance policies for Daniel Jones.
DeVito sticking on the final 53-man roster would give him the chance to dress on Opening Day as the emergency third quarterback. (In case of emergency, break glass and hand the ball to Tommy Cutlets).
Only a year ago, DeVito, as an unknown, undrafted free agent from Cedar Grove, N.J., did not survive the cutdown to 53 and found his way unclaimed to the practice squad on his way to folk hero. Subjecting him to waivers this time was a gamble the Giants wisely did not choose to make.
“There’s no other place where he wants to be,” his agent, Sean Stellato, told The Post. “He loves his fans, he loves his teammates. It means a lot to him, they have their trust and confidence in him. At the end of the day, he’s proved how tough he is, how much of a fighter he is. He’s a gamer when he gets the opportunity. … It’s a great story, Local Boy Makes Good, but the story is far from complete.”
At the end of a 20-minute ride from 1925 Giants Drive sits Cedar Grove, N.J., which proved a year ago that the town indeed is big enough for Aaron Rodgers AND Tommy DeVito.
There was cheering all over Cedar Grove, N.J., late Tuesday afternoon.
“Good for him, man, it’s one of our hometown kids. I’m happy for him. Hope he does well. Absolutely,” Sean O’Connor said inside The Fresh Grocer off Pompton Ave.
Patty D said she knows the DeVito family.
“He’s a good kid. Very good kid. I’m happy for him,” she said. “I’m not a Giant fan, my husband is, but I became a Giant fan ’cause I’m rooting for Tommy. Yeah, gotta root for our hometown boy!”
Down the road, at Violante & Sons, where the chicken cutlets go like hotcakes, Anthony Violante told The Post: “I think it’s phenomenal. I wish the kid a lot of luck, I really do.”
Violante has never met Tommy Cutlets but was amazed last year at the way he never blinked in the spotlight.
“I’m just a local guy that sees a local kid do well, I’m happy for him,” Violante said.
He mentioned a conversation he had with Al Lombardi, who owns Lombardi’s next to The Fresh Grocer.
“We both said the same thing,” Violante said. “We kinda felt bad, people talking to us about it like we have something to do with it. He’s working his tail off, it’s his moment in the sun, I hope he does well and I hope they start focusing on that, not how his agent looks or what he eats for dinner.”
Chicken cutlet sales haven’t necessarily exploded since Tommy Cutlets exploded onto the scene.
“People would call about cutlets when they had the Tommy Cutlets thing,” Violante said, “but it’s a staple for us. We do thousands of pounds a week. In this area, chicken cutlets are like a potato chip anywhere else in the country for lunch.”
I had interviewed Violante during DeVitomania last fall.
“Quick anecdote,” he said. “My daughter’s [Giovanna] sitting next to me, we’re having breakfast, it’s a Monday morning. She was 11 then, and she goes, ‘What’s the big deal about a chicken cutlet?’ I said, ‘Honey, not everybody knows what chicken cutlet is.’ Her face dropped, she looked at me real serious and goes: ‘Where were they from, Mars?’
A 14-year-old boy was dribbling a basketball outside his house. “I remember like in school, we used to talk about him a lot, my teachers, they taught him and they always talk about he was a great student in school and how they’re proud of him now,” Keroles Hanna said. “It’s a big journey, him and [fellow Cedar Grove native] David Njoku [Browns TE], two people who are famous and like got up there from Cedar Grove, so it’s inspirational.”
Gabe Primavera, a Giants fan from Verona, was wearing a Yankees cap.
“They should hold onto him. I like him because he’s a scrambler,” he said.
Only a year ago, few knew about DeVito’s swag, his moxie, his competitive mindset. Daboll had no idea that Tommy DeVito would be a quarterback he would want to keep developing.
“I think part of him was disappointed just in the fact that he wants to be on an active roster,” Stellato said, “but I think at the end of the day, sometimes when we’re humbled or things don’t go as planned, that says a lot about a player how you respond, and Tommy’s middle name is Resilient.”
Pinched fingers celebrations all over Cedar Grove, N.J.