Tony Soprano famously preached that “’Remember when?’ is the lowest form of conversation.”
In the case of the Giants and Tommy DeVito, perhaps the lowest form is “What if?” at least if you’re referencing next year’s draft.
Tommy DeVito has captivated the city, leading the Giants to three straight wins thanks to Monday’s game-winning drive against the favored Packers. The undrafted rookie also added a perfect dart to the back corner of the end zone while on the run, connecting with Isaiah Hodgins to ignite MetLife Stadium. Large cutout emojis of DeVito’s Italian hand gesture celebration popped up in the stands, as his agent, decked out in a black pinstriped suit, as if he should have been collecting for Soprano himself, planted a kiss on the cheek of DeVito’s father as the family went wild.
All of that, however improbable, is real. It happened. A draft pick, like DeVito imagining himself as the starting quarterback for Big Blue growing up in New Jersey, is nothing more than a fantasy, until it becomes real. DeVito’s dream has come true. Dreams of a top draft pick becoming the next Patrick Mahomes or Jalen Hurts is rooted only in “What if?” Enjoying the here and now is much more fulfilling, and Giants fans should embrace it rather than allow the joy of DeVito’s rise be soured by the potential impact it has on next April and beyond.
Is DeVito for real? Can he actually become the next in a very short line of college castoffs, like Tom Brady, to turn a sudden chance into a legendary career? Nobody can answer that. Nobody can answer whether or not this ride will end on Sunday in New Orleans with a sudden crash back down to earth. But on Tuesday morning, all Giants fans can say for sure is that watching their team is fun again. Their undrafted quarterback is the talk of the league, living out a dream every week before curling up in bed at mom and dad’s house later that night, likely wondering how the hell he got here. A season that many declared dead three weeks ago has a pulse thanks to DeVito, and those same fans are likely having a lot more fun than the likes of the Panthers or Patriots, whose fans are laboring through a lost season with nothing more than hope of a future savior getting them through the pain.
Fans in New York know that feeling all too well, and many times, it was only compounded by more disappointment. The Jets have watched two top-three picks turn out to be busts at quarterback in the last five years in Sam Darnold and Zach Wilson. Daniel Jones was a sixth overall pick in 2019, and many still aren’t sure exactly what kind of quarterback he is. Even when there seems to be the surest of sure things waiting on draft day, nobody is a lock to succeed. Such is the danger of being sucked into what could be.
Fans and analysts alike can comb over the tape of DeVito’s last three games, and the college film of a Caleb Williams or Drake Maye, and still have no idea who will turn in the better NFL career when it’s all said and done. It’s fun to dream, but it’s even more enjoyable to embrace reality, especially when it’s this damn fun. The Giants are sliding down the draft board, but so what? As their draft stock falls, their present intrigue rises, giving fans something tangible to enjoy in the moment.
Nobody knew when the Linsanity ride would end at Madison Square Garden. Eventually, it did, but that magical run still is remembered through HBO documentaries and anniversary look-backs over a decade later. DeVito’s run hasn’t ended yet, but whenever and however it does, it will be talked about in New York for a long time, even after Williams and Maye’s NFL careers come to an end. We don’t know what those careers will look like, but we do know that DeVito’s story is no fantasy, even if it started as one.
Tommy DeVito has injected life into what had been a lost and epically disappointing NFL season in New York. It should be enjoyed without pondering the consequences of the Giants’ long-term future.
