Fans of both Tommy DeVito and pizza were not disappointed Tuesday.
After a flap over a fee threatened to cancel his appearance at a New Jersey pizza shop, the New York Giants quarterback and Italian American sensation showed up as scheduled to sample pies and meet and greet fans. What’s more, according to reporter Darren Rovell, he did it for free.
Here’s DeVito at Morristown, New Jersey’s Coniglio’s Old Fashioned on Tuesday watching owner Nino Coniglio work behind the counter.
Class Act: Giants QB Tommy DeVito showed up on his own this afternoon and unpaid to Coniglios, the pizza shop that originally had scheduled an appearance.
Making sodas the old fashioned way with owner Nino Coniglio. pic.twitter.com/k8w8pK5OkG
— Darren Rovell (@darrenrovell) December 19, 2023
It’s a scene that almost didn’t happen after an online back-and-forth between Coniglio and DeVito’s agent, Sean Stellato, threatened to shut the appearance down. Coniglio posted Sunday on Instagram that Stellato doubled an agreed-upon $10,000 appearance fee after DeVito led a high-profile Monday night win over the Green Bay Packers in his third consecutive victory as New York’s starter.
It was a primetime game that heavily featured Stellato leaning all the way in to the love affair between DeVito and the New York/New Jersey Italian American community.
“After last week’s win we received word from his agent that his appearance fee would be doubling (went from 10k to 20); We are a small family run business & decided $20,000 was a bit steep for 2 hours,” Coniglio wrote.
Coniglio concluded his post by doubling down that DeVito and Stellato had reneged on a deal.
“We’re Italian too & don’t like when someone says one thing & does another,” Coniglio wrote.
Stellato responded to Coniglio with a statement to Rovell that the two sides never had a signed contract.
“It’s a shame that the restaurant promoted that they would have Tommy when we didn’t have a signed contract,” Stellato said, per Rovell. “We didn’t raise the price because nothing was ever agreed to.”
Coniglio then responded to Stellato’s retort with his own statement to Rovell and a screenshot of a text message that he says shows that Stellato agreed to the terms he referenced.
This isn’t the end.
Coniglio’s owner Nino Coniglio on deal with DeVito.
“We agreed in principle to terms — 2 hours, 250 autographs and $10,000 and then the agent couldn’t be reached. He reached back out after Monday’s game to tell us the price was now $20,000.”
Contract… pic.twitter.com/JhZFBeAYSe
— Darren Rovell (@darrenrovell) December 18, 2023
It was all a tremendous mess that threatened to spoil the goodwill of DeVito’s breakout from unknown, undrafted rookie to winning quarterback for the New York Giants.
In the end, DeVito got some face-time with fans and what looks like a tasty lunch with his reputation intact. And Coniglio got a lot more promotion than he bargained for at a steep discount. Everybody appears to have come out on top.
