Darren Rizzi has fond memories of the New York Giants growing up.
“I remember the strike year in 1982 where the Giants actually held practice on our [youth football] field in Hillsdale,” Rizzi said in an interview with NorthJersey.com two weeks ago.
“I was 11 years old and I could walk down to the bottom of the hill and watch the Giants practice. It was awesome.”
Rizzi, now 2-1 as the interim head coach of the New Orleans Saints, will get an even closer look Sunday when he brings his team in to face the struggling Giants at MetLife Stadium.
It will be a huge homecoming for the Bergen Catholic grad who has climbed multiple steps up the coaching ladder to get here.
“It will be a surreal experience,” Rizzi said.
Rizzi still has deep connections in North Jersey. His best friends from high school and his family will be there Sunday. They’ve coordinated a pre-game get together, and arranged for travel for his mother, Phylis, for the game.
Like any worried mother, Phylis is, well, a worried mother. She will be at MetLife too, praying at every snap and trying to keep a low profile.
“I am almost going to try to go incognito,” Phylis said. “I want to be able to be with my family. I just pray that he is safe and happy and secure.”
Ben Tonon is a Bergen Catholic graduate, and part of the Rizzi inner ‘triangle’ of best friends that includes Kurt Karcich.
Tonon is coming up from South Carolina to cheer for the Saints, natch, and support Rizzi.
“We’ve all been following Darren and his path to this point since he was at Rutgers and at Rhode Island and with the Dolphins,” Tonon said. “His ability to get the players to play hard, his relationship with his players is remarkable. I would run through a brick wall for him.”
Karcich is a St. Joseph Regional graduate and the son of Green Knights legendary coach Tony Karcich. Kurt lined up against Rizzi in the state championship game in 1987 – and won 7-0, not that he brings that up much.
The pair met at some shared Catholic school functions and hit it off immediately. They owned a love of family and football, and the friendship blossomed.
“I am ecstatic, this is long overdue,” said Kurt, now the principal at Point Pleasant High School. “He has all the qualities I think you want in a head coach. I have been with him on many recruiting trips when he was in the college ranks, and with the Dolphins and the Saints. He has a natural ability to lead people and command respect.”
The Rizzi Storyline is the biggest entering Sunday’s game – although the possibility of a former Don Bosco quarterback, Tommy DeVito for the Giants, facing a Bergen Catholic coach is fun too.
The Giants (2-10) have lost seven in a row and there are grumblings from fans about the job head coach Brian Daboll and GM Joe Schoen have done.
The Saints (4-8) just lost versatile star Taysom Hill to a season-ending knee injury in a loss to the Rams last week.
Tickets can be had for $10 on StubHub, so this isn’t exactly a marquee NFL matchup, but for Rizzi’s friends and family, this moment is priceless.
“You can say this, I have been a Giants fan since birth, but I hope they lose by 140 points,” laughed Tonon. “Both teams are struggling, but the product the Saints have put on the field has been incredible. I think everyone in New Orleans is seeing the product is something to go root for.”
“I’m rooting for the Saints,” Kurt said. “I’m a lifelong Giants fan, but I won’t even hesitate, I am rooting for my boy.”
According to Phylis, Darren originally was a Rams fan – Darren’s brother, Daniel, was a Cowboys fan, so Darren said he always hated the Cowboys – but when the Giants rose up in the late 80s, Darren switched to cheering for them.
It’s not lost on Darren’s friends that those Giants were led by a Bergen County native named Bill Parcells.
You never know how things might work out in the NFL (all indications are the Saints are happy with Rizzi), but it’s an easy leap that Giants fans could be looking at their future head coach on the opposing sidelines Sunday.
“I can imagine him being the coach of the Giants,” Tonon said. “That would be a dream come true.”
