In interviews last week, Hillis and his wife, Amanda, who hastily flew to the New York area to join him with their 4-month-old son, Orry, described in detail their hectic, chaotic week, explaining what it was like to pick up and move, to get ready to play on one of the sport’s biggest regular-season stages and to make sure the baby was fed, clothed and changed.

“We were just living a small-town, country life,” Amanda Hillis said of the farm they bought a year ago in Stantonville, population 283. “But when the Giants called, it was a no-brainer. I was hoping he’d make it. We’ve lived all over the country during Peyton’s football career, why not New York?”

Hillis previously played in Denver, Cleveland, Kansas City and Tampa. The shining year of his career was 2010 in Cleveland, when he rushed for 1,177 yards and 11 touchdowns and later was on the cover of Madden 12, a popular video game. But by early last month, he had played little in the last two seasons and was cut by Tampa Bay.

Five weeks passed until the Giants called. Hillis dashed to his bedroom, packed a single bag, drove two hours to Memphis, flew to Newark and was taken to the first of three hotels where he stayed the next three nights.

“I don’t even remember the towns those hotels were in,” he said.

The Giants chose Hillis over four other running backs they invited to the tryout and gave him a veteran minimum contract worth $715,000. In minutes, he was being schooled in the Giants’ playbook by quarterback Eli Manning. For each of the next several days, Hillis’s late afternoons and evenings were spent in two-hour sessions with Manning.

Then he would be driven to another hotel. The second night, he walked to a wine bar. It was only a half-mile away.

“I don’t drink, but the food was good,” Hillis said.

The next day, for the first time, Hillis was practicing with the first-team offense because the Giants’ top three running backs were injured.