Giants’ Tommy DeVito shares the origin behind his pinched fingers touchdown celebration

Out of what had been a miserable, injury-plagued, complete letdown of a season for the New York Giants, someone worth cheering for has emerged: A homegrown, undrafted, chicken cutlet-fed rookie quarterback whose name is now in the win column.

With his performance in the Giants’ Week 11 victory over the Washington Commanders, Tommy DeVito has been elevated from third-string quarterback to folk hero status in New York. A large part of that is derived from the Livingston, N.J. native and Don Boscoe being a dye-in-the-wool Italian, from the vowel in his surname to his fondness for his mother’s chicken cutlets to him pinching his fingers in celebration when he threw his first of three touchdown passes in a 31-19 victory over Washington.

When asked about the gesture following practice Wednesday, DeVito says the idea came from Giants assistant athletic trainer Phil Buzzerio — plus his own Italian heritage. 

“[Buzzerio] mentioned it to me a couple of weeks ago. I was like, ‘Alright, I’ll roll with it one of these days,’ and he was like, ‘This is the week!’ Alright, I did it, and then it kind of took off from there,” DeVito told reporters in the locker room. “… I kind of thought it was just the old Italians, when they talk, they start doing this. It’s just a little credit to them. A little bit.”

Specifically, the hand gesture performed by DeVito — and many other Italians — is known as ma che vuoi. Generally, the hand gesture is used to enunciate feelings of disbelief, frustration or ridicule (In Italian, ma che vuoi means “What do you want!?”). However, it has crossed over into mainstream culture as a popular emoji and a very recognizable and distinctly Italian nonverbal.

Having infused the Giants with a spark in an otherwise lost season, DeVito will look to earn the Giants their second-straight win this week against the New England Patriots, and in the process become one of the few rookie quarterbacks to ever win against a Bill Belichick-coached defense. While the Patriots have plummeted from the heights of their dynasty and are mired in a miserable season of their own, rookie quarterbacks are 6-24 all-time against New England under Belichick, with Tua Tagovailoa the last to beat them in 2020.