{"id":10171,"date":"2025-10-21T00:34:08","date_gmt":"2025-10-21T00:34:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/10171\/"},"modified":"2025-10-21T00:34:08","modified_gmt":"2025-10-21T00:34:08","slug":"ny-jets-to-honor-hero-long-island-cops-who-saved-dancing-ladies-man-after-heart-attack","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/10171\/","title":{"rendered":"NY Jets to honor hero Long Island cops — who saved dancing \u2018ladies man\u2019 after heart attack"},"content":{"rendered":"

At least the New York Jets <\/a>are doing something right off the field.<\/p>\n

Gang Green plans to honor three Long Island <\/a>hero cops, including having them hold a giant American flag during the national anthem \u2014 after reading The Post\u2019s reporting<\/a> on their lifesaving rescue.<\/p>\n

Suffolk County Sheriff\u2019s<\/a> Deputy Dylan Hever and Yaphank correction officers Sean Higgins and Travis Yacovone \u2014 who saved the life of Larry Muzzillo after he suffered a heart attack at a senior picnic in September \u2014 are set to be honored at MetLife Stadium<\/a> this month as part of the team\u2019s annual First Responder Appreciation Day.<\/p>\n

\u201c[Muzillo] loves to dance and he\u2019s a ladies man \u2014 and you know what, thanks to [Hever, Higgins and Yacovone], he could be doing that another 10 years.\u201d Steven Castleton, the military and first responder liaison for the Jets told reporters during a press conference on Monday.<\/p>\n

Deputy Sheriff Dylan Hever and Correction Officers Travis Yacovone, Sean Higgins, and Lenny Mazzillo, reunited a month after Mazzillo suffered a heart attack. Dennis A. Clark<\/p>\n

Lenny Muzzillo (right), in a blue jacket, talking with a woman in sunglasses. Obtained by the NY Post<\/p>\n

\u201cHow do you not honor somebody like that?\u201d<\/p>\n

The trio was initially told they were walking into a presser about training \u2014 but it was all a ruse by Sheriff Errol Toulon Jr., and the Jets to surprise<\/a> the unsuspecting officers.<\/p>\n

Their reward, they\u2019ll get to suffer through a Jets game.<\/p>\n

Hever got choked up, once he realized what was happening, and said it would be the honor of his lifetime to hold the US flag on the field alongside other first responders.<\/p>\n

\u201cWords can\u2019t describe how I feel right now. I might cry,\u201d Hever told reporters.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Higgins appeared excited to watch the winless Jets in person.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m kind of speechless because I\u2019m a big Jets fan, so this is a great honor,\u201d Higgins said with a huge smile.<\/p>\n

Muzzillo \u2014 a 73-year-old \u201cladies\u2019 man\u201d who had just finished dancing with two women \u2014 went into cardiac arrest moments later at the Brookhaven Senior Picnic last month.<\/p>\n

A group of older people dancing at the Brookhaven Town Senior Picnic. Obtained by the NY Post<\/p>\n

Sheriff Errol D. Toulon Jr., Deputy Sheriff Dylan Hever, and Correction Officers Sean Higgins and Travis Yacovone reuniting with Lenny Muzzillo. Dennis A. Clark<\/p>\n

The three officers were working the event issuing ID cards when Muzzillo went down. They quickly sprung into action \u2014 performing CPR<\/a> for nearly 10 minutes and reviving him.<\/p>\n

Doctors later discovered four blocked arteries and performed an emergency quadruple bypass.<\/p>\n

But within days, Muzzillo was back on his feet, cracking jokes with his rescuers. He\u2019s felt \u201cterrific\u201d since leaving the hospital and having another shot at life, he said.<\/p>\n

His sister, Diane Summerfold, called the officers \u201cangels on earth\u201d and said the family still can\u2019t believe he pulled through.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a miracle,\u201d she said. \u201cThey gave us our brother back.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Jets, meanwhile, may need their own miracle to get into the win column this year. <\/p>\n

They play the Atlanta Falcons on First Responder Appreciation Day.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"At least the New York Jets are doing something right off the field. Gang Green plans to honor…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":10172,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[776,57,9,11,430,10,104,773,8399],"class_list":{"0":"post-10171","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-long-island","9":"tag-metro","10":"tag-new-york","11":"tag-new-york-headlines","12":"tag-new-york-jets","13":"tag-new-york-news","14":"tag-police","15":"tag-suffolk-county","16":"tag-suffolk-county-police"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10171","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10171"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10171\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10172"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10171"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10171"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10171"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}