A Family-Owned Pizzeria Didn't Want To Pay Tommy Devito $20k For An Appearance, And Honestly I Can't Blame Them

New York Giants quarterback Tommy Devito had a rather bad day at the office on Sunday.

In addition to losing to the New Orleans Saints and suffering an injury, Devito lost a marketing opportunity with a New Jersey pizzeria.

Initially, Devito and Coniglio’s pizzeria in Morristown, NJ, had an agreement that the quarterback would take part in an appearance on behalf of the restaurant.

However, owner Nino Coniglio posted on Instagram he terminated his agreement with Devito and his agent, Sean Stellato. According to Cooniglio, Stellato upped the original price for the appearance by a hefty amount.

“No will NOT be [Coniglio’s] this Tuesday as originally planned,” Coniglio wrote on Instagram. “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.”

He added that he did not appreciate the sudden change in business terms.

“Sorry about that loss today fans,” Coniglio continued, “but we’re Italian too and don’t like when someone says one thing and does another.”

Devito's Agent Said That's Not The Whole Story

Gosh, life as a quarterback must be pretty sweet! Imagine having the ability to charge $20,000 for two hours of your time.

Of course, that’s only one side of the story. Stellato claimed there was a misunderstanding and that he did not increase the price.

“It’s a shame that the restaurant promoted that they would have Tommy when we didn’t have a signed contract,” he said, via Darren Rovell. “We didn’t raise the price because nothing was ever agreed to.”

Okay, what really happened? Coniglio responded that they agreed to the $10,000 deal in principle despite not signing anything.

I frankly don’t know who to believe, since both sides seem really convinced that their version is the truth. At the end of the day, Devito didn’t get the deal.

Frankly, I feel concerned for both sides. Since both are Italian, who knows what kind of friends they’ve got in low places? 

All jokes aside, it’s a shame the deal fell through, and hopefully they can work something out - for a more reasonable price.