His Improbable Dream has been shattered time and time again, by no fewer than eight franchises, and still Austin Calitro keeps picking up the pieces and refuses to abandon it.
Especially now.
Especially now that he is a New York Giant.
For however long he can keep this Improbable Dream alive.
“He had two dreams,” his father, Rich, told The Post, “and he used to tell me this every time we went to practice and stuff. He said ‘I want to play linebacker at Penn State’ — he didn’t do that, but he played linebacker at Villanova — and then he said, ‘I’m gonna play linebacker for the Giants.’ ”
His son is 28 now, a poster boy for perseverance, a 6-foot, 240-pound free agent long shot who keeps getting back up after getting knocked down all these years after it all began with the Pop Warner Danbury (Conn.) Trojans.
“One day when I have kids — I think one day if my son or my daughter was ever telling me they wanted to do something and it seemed crazy or seemed like all the cards are stacked against you,” Austin Calitro told The Post, “and you believe in your heart that you can really do it … I mean, I trust my work and I trust my preparation. At this point, I just believe in my instincts and my ability to go out there and do my job.”
After stops with the Jets, 49ers, Seahawks and Browns as an undrafted free agent in 2017, he started five games in 2018 in a second stint with the Seahawks. He has played in 47 regular-season games and one playoff game. He has nine career starts. He recorded a half sack on Aaron Rodgers on a Thursday night. He was a practice-squad spectator on the Bengals sideline at Super Bowl LVI in his second stint with Cincinnati. There have also been stops with the Jaguars, Broncos and Bears.
On July 28, he signed with the Giants.
“He called me and said, ‘Dad, everything went well with the workout,” Rich Calitro said. “It sounds like they’re gonna sign me. I’ll call you back.’ He called me back an hour later, he said, ‘I’m a Giant.’
“ ‘I can’t stay with the team tonight because my contract isn’t in effect til tomorrow, but I’ll be on the practice field as a Giant tomorrow.’
“I said, ‘That’s pretty cool, isn’t it?’
“He goes, ‘It is. I got a lot of work to do to make the club.’
“I said, ‘You’ve been there before. Just keep battling.’ ”
You better believe he will.
“I still have a love for the game, and to be honest with you, I don’t think I hit all my personal goals yet for this career,” Austin said. “I still feel healthy body-wise, so as long as I can do that, and as long as I got my head and my heart’s still in it, I want to go.”
These dreams belong to parents, too. It was surreal for Rich and Sharon Calitro when they showed up in the bleachers two weekends ago to watch their boy wearing No. 59 for the New York Giants before lining up to greet Giants fans. Sharon grew up in a Giants family. Rich would take Austin, whose favorite player was Tiki Barber, to Giants games.
“My dad’s a lifelong Giants fan, he’s 84 years old, he’s still living with us and he was like, ‘This is amazing.’ My father-in-law, whose been passed away for over 10 years, I know would just be ecstatic,” Rich said.
“When practice was over, they went around the entire perimeter of the complex. And Sharon and I went around the corner and I said, ‘When he comes around the corner, we’ll see him. Let’s not call him Austin. Let’s go, ‘Hey 59, hey 59, see if he hears us.’ And we did it, and he looked up and he saw his mother, and you could see a huge smile on his face and he waved and followed the line of players.”
Austin smiles and says: “Someone’s like ‘59.’ I was like, ‘Who knows me already?’ I look, it’s my mom and dad.”
The first cut, 10 days after signing with the Jets in May 2017, was the unkindest.
“I was supposed to head down for OTAs, they called me and said, ‘We don’t need you anymore.’ That was kinda my first taste of the business. I gave myself 24 hours to be sad about it but then went right back to work after that,” Austin said.
He cherished his time in Seattle being mentored by Bobby Wagner and K.J. Wright.
“I’m a positive guy, so I try to look at it from the standpoint everything happens for a reason,” Austin said.
The Friday night Fan Fest scrimmage at MetLife was a surreal experience for him. He had never played at MetLife. And never, of course, in a Giants uniform. Thursday night against the Patriots in Foxborough, Mass., he will try to make his mark on special teams as a fast and physical heat-seeking missile. His mentality from his all-state days at Danbury High: “Someone wearing the other color has to get hit.”
Rich and Sharon will be at Gillette Stadium, of course.
“Never played New England,” Austin says. “Never played as a Giant.
“It’s nice to finally be home and play in front of my family.”
