His unlikely dreams were shattered time and time again by at least eight franchises, but Austin Calitro kept picking up the pieces and abandoning them. refusing to do
Especially now.
Especially now with the New York Giants.
How long can he keep this incredible dream alive?
"He had his two dreams," his father Rich tells The Post. He said 'I want to play linebacker at Penn State' — he didn't, but played linebacker at Villanova — then he said 'I'm going to play linebacker at Giants.' said.
His son, now 28, is the epitome of tenacity, a 6-foot-tall, 240-pound free agent long shot, and it all started in Pop Warner's Danbury, Connecticut. After being knocked down for years, he continues to bounce back. Trojan horse.
"One day when I have a child, one day when my son or daughter wants to do something, and it seems crazy and all the cards are against you. I wish it looked like it was stacked,” Austin Calitro told The Post. At this point, he trusts his instincts and his ability to go out and do his job.
Jets, 49ers, Seahawks, As an undrafted free agent in 2017 after a stoppage with the Browns, he started five games in his second stint with the Seahawks in 2018. Appearing in 47 regular season games and one playoff game. He has nine career starts. He scored a half sack to Aaron Rodgers on Thursday night as he was a practice team spectator on the Bengals' sidelines in Super Bowl LVI in his second stint in Cincinnati. He also had stops for the Jaguars, Broncos and Bears.
On July 28, he signed with the Giants.
"He called me and said, 'Dad, all the workouts went well,'" Rich said his Calitro. "It looks like they're going to sign me. They'll call me back. I got a call back in an hour and they said, 'I'm a giant.'
, I can't be with the team tonight, but I'm at the practice field.Tomorrow it's the Giants.''
"I said, 'That's pretty cool.'
We had a lot of work to do to build the club.''
Keep fighting.''
You better believe he will.
"I still love games. To be honest, I don't think I've achieved all my personal goals in this career," Austin said. "Physically I still feel healthy, so I want to go as long as I can, and as long as I have my head and my heart left."
These dreams are also the parent's. Rich and Sharon He said it was surreal to see Calitro show up in the bleachers two weekends before him and his number 59 boy from the New York Giants lined up to greet Giants fans. did. Sharon grew up in a Giants family. Rich took Austin, who likes Tiki Barber, to a Giants game.
"My dad was a lifelong Giants fan, he was 84 and still lived with us and said, 'This is amazing.' "My father-in-law knows I'm just going to be ecstatic," said Rich. and I went around the corner and said, "I'll see him when he's around the corner." Let's not call him Austin. Let's go, "Hey 59, Hey 59, see if he hears us. Player.
Austin smiles and says, 'Someone like '59.' I was thinking, 'Who knows me?' Look, it's my mom and dad."
The first cut, in May 2017, ten days after signing with the Jets, was the most unfriendly.
"I was supposed to go to an OTA, but they called me and said, 'We don't need you anymore.' It took him 24 hours to grieve." But I went back to work soon after that," Austin said.
He's Bobby Wagner and he's K.J. Wright.
"I'm a positive guy, so I try to see things in terms of everything happening for a reason," Austin said.
Fans on Friday night at MetLife Fest His scrimmage was a surreal experience for him. He had never played for MetLife. He, of course, never wears a Giants uniform. Thursday night against the Patriots in Foxborough, Massachusetts, he will try to establish himself as a fast, physical, heat-seeking missile with special teams. His thinking during his Jeonju days at Danbury High School: "Anyone wearing any other color must be beaten."
Of course, Rich and Sharon are at Gillette Stadium.
"I never played in New England," says Austin. "I never played for the Giants.
"I'm happy to finally be back home and playing in front of my family."
