N.Y. Giants quarterback Tommy ‘Cutlets’ is a hero for Italian Americans. On Monday, he plays the Eagles.

Tommy “Cutlets” DeVito is having his moment.

The 25-year-old quarterback for the New York Giants, an Italian American kid from North Jersey who lives at home with his parents and declares that his mom makes his bed and his chicken cutlets, has been everywhere lately — TikTok, Instagram, ESPN. Videos of DeVito throwing touchdowns are often accompanied by old Italian folk songs or the opening theme from The Sopranos.

What engages people is not so much the swaggering, brawny audacity that makes for a good quarterback; it’s DeVito’s Italian aura. The working-class, family-centered, food-oriented culture that he represents resonates with people — especially Italian Americans living in the Connecticut-New York-New Jersey-Southeastern Pennsylvania area — the largest corridor of Italian descendants in the country.

DeVito makes Italian hand gestures when he scores. The male members of his family, nourished by cutlets and other delights served at lavish tailgate parties, kiss each other on the cheeks after their boy’s triumphs. Sean Stellato, DeVito’s agent, is a fedora-wearing “fan of Rocky Balboa and Frank Sinatra” who favors klieg light-catching jewelry on game days and dubs his client the “Passing Paisan.”

It’s been quite a show. And on Christmas, DeVito, the son of a plumber, will be bringing the whole rollicking festa to Philadelphia, when the Eagles play the Giants about 100 miles south of the DeVito home in Cedar Grove, Essex County.

“I gotta say, I grew up hating the Giants,” said Perry Cocco, 66, a retired building-code official from South Philadelphia. “But I don’t hate them as much now because of Tommy Cutlets.

“I love the Italian thing — the kissing, the hugging. It’s what we do, it’s who we are. You see DeVito and you instantly know who he is and who his family is.”

DeVito, who was undrafted by the NFL, became the Giants’ field general only after both the team’s starting quarterback and his backup succumbed to injuries. Though the third-stringer has surprised people by his relatively high level of play, DeVito faltered last week in New Orleans against the Saints. Sports cognoscenti believe that if he wants to continue to reap the profits from all that good will and Tommy Cutlets merchandise, he has to redeem himself against the Eagles.

Eagles center Jason Kelce, busting DeVito’s chops recently on the New Heights podcast he hosts with his brother Travis, couldn’t seem to get past how DeVito’s mom cooks all her son’s meals and washes his clothes.

Kelce advised DeVito to get his own place, then “don’t do laundry and live in filth like the rest of us.”

He added, “I don’t blame Tommy for all this. I blame Mrs. DeVito.”

Cocco sussed the situation bluntly.

“Tommy Cutlets is a momma’s boy,” he said. “There’s a really high rate of them in South Philly. It’s all about the Italian moms saying, ‘My son can do no wrong.’ I was a momma’s boy, raised by my two aunts. My four grandsons are, too, all spoiled rotten.”

The “mammone” tradition of men living with their moms into their 30s or later derives from the old country, according to Fred Gardaphe, professor of Italian American studies at Queens College in the City University of New York.

“I have friends who lived with their mothers until they died,” he said. “Mothers turn sons into princes. It’s not exclusive to Italian American culture, but it’s characteristic of the culture.”

Also characteristic, many say, are DeVito’s hand gestures. He favors one in particular, although European Italians have around 250 of them, scholars say. The problem is, Tommy Cutlets is using his signature gesture — fingers pinched against the thumb — incorrectly.

“That gesture, for which there’s no name, means ‘What’s wrong with you?’” Gardaphe said, “not, ‘We just scored.’”

But don’t sweat it, Gardaphe said: “Many Italian Americans are looking for ways to be Italian.” As they lose the elder generations, it’s more difficult to understand what the culture is supposed to be, he added.

“So Tommy is just picking and choosing what he’s comfortable with,” Gardaphe said.

He hasn’t resorted to extreme cliché like the so-called “guidos” and “guidettes” on the oft-maligned Jersey Shore reality TV series, which ran from 2009 through 2012, Gardaphe said.

“You might hear about people being offended by Tommy Cutlets’ image at some point,” he added, “but that kind of protest is ultimately useless. DeVito’s presence may be based on certain mild stereotypes, but at least he’s making them his own.”

As for South Philly residents, Cocco believes many will be rooting for Tommy Cutlets this Monday — to a point.

“I don’t want the Eagles to lose, but I don’t mind if the kid has a good game,” Cocco said. “This way, he’ll get a big contract, make some real money, and finally move out of his mother’s house.”