Super Bowl 2026: Patriots' Tommy DeVito gives advice to Long Island's Dan Villari
Former Plainedge football star Dan Villari, left, and former Giants and current Patriots backup quarterback Tommy DeVito. Credit: Getty Images/Bryan M. Bennett; AP/Greg M. Cooper
SANTA CLARA, Calif. – Tommy DeVito and Dan Villari hit it off right away.
“I’ve met him a couple times,” DeVito, the former Giants quarterback and current backup for the Patriots in Super Bowl LX this week, told Newsday of Villari, an NFL prospect at tight end from Plainedge who last week competed in the Senior Bowl. “We have a lot of similar friends and friend groups with him being from the area.”
DeVito grew up in New Jersey, not Long Island, but there are more likenesses than differences. They both played quarterback (at least at one point with Villari switching positions since he began college at Michigan), they both played at Syracuse (at least at one point with Villari transferring there and DeVito starting out there before finishing college at Illinois), and now they both have the same fedora-wearing agent in Sean Stellato. DeVito helped Villari navigate that all-important decision.
Perhaps one day they will even be teammates with DeVito throwing passes to Villari. Imagine all the cutlets that combination could deliver!
Until then, DeVito, in the middle of helping prepare the Patriots for The Big Game, served up some paesan-to-paesan advice regarding what the next few weeks of Villari’s life may look like until he hopefully lands on an NFL roster.
“Just do what helped you get to this point,” DeVito said. “This draft process is so stressful and it’s nonstop people pulling you in so many different directions and you never really know what is going to happen because your agent is telling you one thing and you hear another. This round, that round. But nobody has signed any contracts yet. They can tell you they are coming to get you the first pick, first round overall and that could not be the case.
“Enjoy the process because each one is special each in its own way,” DeVito continued. “For mine it was undrafted. It was bittersweet. It sucked not getting drafted. But at the same time you get an opportunity and that’s all you can ask for. So enjoy waking up and working on those dang 40-yard dashes 24/7, doing all that, and enjoy the media and everything that comes with it, because you are being celebrated.”
DeVito also suggested that Villari take every conversation with people in the NFL seriously.
“You never know,” DeVito said. “A lot of those times, you’ll meet coaches, staff, other personnel, and stuff changes. It’s a revolving door. They could be somewhere else very fast so don’t burn any bridges. Have the most genuine conversations that you can because you never know where you will meet them down the road.”
With some luck Villari will hear his name called in the draft. He is projected by some as a potential Day Three pick, meaning in the second half of the draft. In that case he’ll have to go where he was selected.
If he winds up being undrafted like DeVito was, though, Villari may get to choose between several teams as a free agent. DeVito had advice for that too.
“Usually money talks,” he said. “If people are offering you a good amount of money as a guarantee they want you for a reason.”
Then again, there are some things more important than money.
“For me I did the opposite,” DeVito said. “I was guaranteed a really significant amount of money from Washington and I wound up choosing New York. I can’t tell you why. It was just a gut feeling. All my bags in my house were packed and ready to go elsewhere and all I wound up doing was unpacking. But it’s really about finding the fit for what feels right for you. As long as you have the opportunity, things will work out.”
Tom Rock began covering sports for Newsday in 1996 and became its NFL columnist in 2022. He previously was Newsday's Giants beat writer beginning in 2008.
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