Sixteen pizzas the Giants had personally asked to be delivered from a local pizzeria arrived safely in Indianapolis yesterday after a whirlwind, 700-mile trip that began with an early-morning police escort to La Guardia Airport.
The saucy snack has been a longtime tradition of Big Blue players, who eat them after every Friday practice.
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Superstitious players even thought they might lose the Super Bowl without their weekly dose of doughy goodness from Umberto’s in New Hyde Park, LI.
The pizza was “excellent,” Eli Manning told The Post after the meal.
“They were gone in less than 10 minutes,” said Gaetano Corteo, 34, the restaurant’s general manager who made and then delivered the pies yesterday.
He said guard David Diehl and defensive end Justin Tuck called in the order last weekend.
“They destroyed all of the pies. There was nothing left,” said Corteo, who happily handed the pizzas off to Big Blue inside their temporary practice home at the University of Indianapolis.
“If there had been 10 more pies, they would have destroyed those too,” said friend Dino Gatto, who was traveling with Corteo.
With news helicopters buzzing overhead, the duo and their precious cargo — which had been packed in special heat-retaining bags — left for the airport from the Long Island restaurant around 8:30 a.m. with a blaring police escort from the Nassau County Sheriff.
The VIP treatment continued at La Guardia, where they were met by federal airport screeners and representatives from Delta who ushered the pizzas through security and onto a waiting MD-88 jet.
Flight attendants wearing Giants jerseys carefully stowed the cheesy meals into overhead bins.
“It’ all about consistency,” Corteo said. “They come in the locker room every Friday and know the pies are there. Its a part of their everyday lives, and it’s such an honor for me and my family back home — it’s awesome.“
The restaurant sent four kinds of pizza to Big Blue:
* Grandma: a mostly sauce pie, light on cheese.
* Buffalo: spicy Buffalo chicken and blue cheese.
* Christino: a thin-crust pie made with focaccia bread, mozzarella, fresh basil and sliced tomatoes.
* Pazzo: a deep-dish pie, with marinara sauce, mozzarella, crumbled homemade sausage, roasted peppers and black olives.