New York Giants football players knew who Ilona Maher was when she attended Cam Skattebo’s Super Bowl party in February. Now, if only she knew who they were.
Maher, 29, recounted the hilarious story of her and her friend, fellow U.S. rugby player Kasey McCravey, trying to navigate a party full of NFL players without recognizing who they were.
“When I was at the Super Bowl, I went to this party and there’s a lot of, like, football players from the Giants there,” Maher said on the Tuesday, April 14 episode of her “House of Maher” podcast. “There’s this one guy, he’s blond, he’s an attractive guy, young-looking, and I’m like, ‘Hey what’s up man?’ I’m like, ‘Hey, you play football?’”
She added that, despite being at a Giants player’s party, she asked the athlete what team he was on and the position he played.
“He’s like, ‘I’m the quarterback,’” Maher continued. “It was Jaxson Dart. No idea. I mean, he knew who I was.”
Dart, 22, just completed his rookie season with the Giants, throwing for 14 touchdowns across 12 starts. The media scrutiny around his play and endless speculation around his love life have made him one of the most recognizable athletes in New York pro sports.
After months of speculation, Instagram model Marissa Ayers confirmed in January that she is dating Dart, posting an Instagram carousel that included photos of the two of them together.
“Rumor has it… @jaxsondart,” Ayers, 23, captioned the post.
Dart wasn’t the only one that Maher and McCravey, 32, encountered at the party. Maher added that her teammate was walking around with a football when a Giants player went to take it from her.
“And she’s a funny person, she goes ‘you know ball?’” Maher recalled. “To Jameis Winston. I was like ‘Kasey, that’s hilarious.’”
She added, “This is a party for the Giants and we’re humbling these guys left and right.”
Winston, 32, signed with the Giants before the 2025 season, starting two games at quarterback in a backup role. He told Us Weekly in March that he has been impressed by the rookie Dart after playing behind him.
“Who he is as a person, it shows me his maturity and his drive, his passion and love for football, and it is expressed through his play,” Winston said. “So the athlete that he is is phenomenal, but the human being that he is, it encourages me that he can lead the most populous city in the world to the promised land.”
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