The legend of Tommy Devito (plus VIDEO!) 🤌

The Giants' backup's backup QB, his Italian family, and his agent have taken the football world by storm — even while the native New Jerseyan still lives at home

Thank you so much for reading The Wilder Things. If you’ve enjoyed this newsletter so far, please consider becoming a paid subscriber! $5 a month gets you every single newsletter, the ability to comment, and access to the archives. Also —if you get even just three people to subscribe, you get a discount! So smash that subscribe and share button. I am so grateful for your support.

Folks, I write to you today with exciting news. Over at Meadowlark Media, I worked with some amazing producers and editors — Thomas Darro, Rose Arias, and Kirsten Graessler — to put together a video essay we’re calling The Legend of Tommy DeVito. I’m telling you the story in this week’s newsletter as well. Please give it a watch, or at least click it and let it play on mute so it looks like a lot of people watched it (just kidding, please watch, I’m proud of this one). Thank you so much.

You know how the NFL ran that ad campaign before this season where they pretended there was a writers room that scripted the NFL? Because the things that happen in the NFL are so unbelievable that someone had to write them. Right? 

Well, no. Not this year. Many star players are injured, teams that were supposed to be good are bad, and many of the storylines involve poor officiating, or officiating people don’t agree with, or officiating that people claim they don’t want to be talking about because “just let them play, man!” except they actually do want to be talking about the officiating, because who doesn’t love complaining about stuff? 

We have, however, been blessed with one specific storyline sent from the heavens. A storyline that is so unbelievable that a writers room would be like “that is way too on the nose, we gotta be more original.” And yet, here we are.

Now, if you aren’t familiar with Tommy DeVito, you might not believe me when I tell you what this guys’ deal is. If you are familiar with Tommy DeVito, keep reading, because you might learn something you didn’t know about this narrative and these characters. I even have the perfect ending in mind for the sports movie they’re gonna make about Tommy DeVito some day. In fact, if you’re the head of a major studio or have a lot of cash to burn, hit me up. We could make something great here. If you’re not or you don’t, don’t steal this idea. Thank you.

Keep reading and this will make sense

Tommy DeVito (sorry, but I’m going to refer to him by his first and last names for this entire thing, because how can you not?) is the current starting quarterback for the New York Football Giants. He was not supposed to be. After starting at Syracuse and playing his final year at Illinois, Tommy DeVito was signed as an undrafted free agent back in April, then waived and placed on the practice squad. HOWEVER. In Week 9, New York’s starting QB Daniel Jones tore his ACL, ending his season; Jones’ backup Tyrod Taylor was also hurt.

That left our 25-year-old native New Jerseyan. Tommy DeVito came into the game and lost. He also lost the week after that.

And then something miraculous started to happen. Tommy DeVito started to win. He beat the Commanders despite getting sacked nine times — which was the first time a quarterback had been sacked nine times in a single game and won since 1992. Then he beat the Patriots (not hard to do this year, honestly). Then, he kept the starting job even though Taylor was activated off the IR list. And he seems to be hanging onto it still, especially after he took down the Packers on Monday Night Football in a walk-off win. 

But it’s not just the winning that’s getting Tommy (okay, I caved, I’ll call him Tommy) all the attention. Tommy’s basic biography does, in fact, feel scripted. He grew up in Cedar Grove, a town in New Jersey that’s five miles away from MetLife Stadium. His family is loudly and proudly Italian-American, something out of central casting for the Sopranos, which I mean as the highest possible compliment. His parents were caught on camera doing what they’ve probably done at his games since he was in peewee, which is yelling at the coach for a play call they didn’t like. This scene also most likely took place over the years a few miles away at Don Bosco, the prep school for large boys who want to become professional athletes that Tommy went to. Well, not really, but athletics is their whole jam. They’re called the Don Bosco Ironmen, just to give you a sense of what we’re working with here. 

In fact, when I first saw Tommy, I was like, “Did they go down to Don Bosco and grab a kid who looked like he could throw?” The answer is, well, kind of, yes.