Former Marist football and basketball player Sean Stellato has always had an underdog mentality.
Long before a 45-year-old Stellato rose to fame as the ballyhooed agent of New York Giants quarterback Tommy DeVito, he had far more humble beginnings. Stellato was taught the value of hard work from the start; his grandparents were Italian immigrants and his parents worked in electronics and homemaking. The examples they set only further honed his strong work ethic.
Growing up 45 minutes north of Boston in Salem, Mass., Stellato played football and basketball in high school. Stellato was the quarterback of Salem High School, and though undersized, he used that to his advantage throughout his playing career.
“I was anointed by the football gods to be a football player and that’s what I wanted to do,” said Stellato. “My father, shortly after he gave me a football, said this is going to be the compass that is going to be able to take you places as long as you put a premium on hard work and your academics.”
Coming out of high school, Stellato had his college lists down to four: Columbia, Marist, West Point and Richmond. So why Marist? For Stellato, it was a mixture of things: the college was still unofficially considered to be a catholic institution at the time, plus he could play two Division I sports at once.
“[With] the physical proximity to Salem, I thought it was a good choice and it was the right choice,” said Stellato.
Stellato initially joined the College’s football team as a quarterback but later transitioned to wide receiver. He spent a total of five seasons with the football team, including one as a redshirt. Additionally, he contributed four seasons as a walk-on player for the Marist basketball team.
Stellato displayed classroom excellence, as he was awarded Dean’s List recognition for all nine semesters he attended Marist. Stellato will be the first to tell you how important academia and time management is.
“I think that 86,400 seconds every day, I had it down to a tee. So I went into college, almost like a veteran, you know, going into a rookie training camp,” said Stellato. “I was able to know what I wanted. I never enter a race I don’t plan on winning.”
Stellato spent a couple of years in the Arena Football League after college, inking his first contract with the Florida Firecats in 2002. Following that, he suited up for the Louisville Fire and Memphis Xplorers before making his way to New York Dragons minicamp in 2003.
By 2015, Stellato had released two books: “4th and Long The Odds: My Journey” and “No Backing Down.” The latter book recounts the real-life journey of the 1994 Salem High School Football team, a team that not only encountered formidable opponents on the field, but also confronted challenges from the school administration that threatened to hinder their journey to the Massachusetts High School Super Bow.l The book was featured in the Patriots Hall of Fame in 2015 and has a foreword by Doug Flutie, as well as endorsements from Evander Holyfield, Mike Ditka, Mark Bavaro, ESPN and Sports Illustrated.
In his post-playing days, Stellato quickly envisioned himself becoming a sports agent.
“I said, ‘I’m gonna play as long as I can,’ and it came down to a grad assistant job at Louisville; or two, studying and getting certified to be a sports agent.”
Stellato’s presence on the sidelines had increasingly gained attention, with him often appearing in a pin-striped suit and fedora, with a cell phone pressed to his ear. His style and demeanor drew parallels to “Jerry Maguire,” the 1996 film that familiarized mainstream audiences with the flamboyant realm of celebrity NFL sports agents.
“I saw the movie, Jerry Maguire, my senior year of high school and I gravitated to that business side of sport; dressing and the suits and the networking and just being out there to be the face of a client,” said Stellato.
Stellato suddenly gained newfound popularity when his client, DeVito, took over the sports world with his play in the latter part of the 2023 NFL season.
There was one particularly viral clip of Stellato on the sidelines during the Giants vs Packers game on “Monday Night Football” that made the world want to know, who is Sean Stellato? Quickly after that, photos of Stellato playing football at Marist started circulating the internet. An accompanying post from Barstool Sports garnered almost 800,000 impressions.
“I believe [DeVito] immortalized himself in the New York sports world. He brought so much joy to that season and seeing him do it on Monday Night Football,” said Stellato. “It was pretty man, I’m not gonna lie, it’s been incredible for him doing the Superman show. Tommy has been a very talented and unique individual and an outstanding football player.”
For DeVito and Stellato, the two seemed like a match made in Italian-American Heaven. Stellato called DeVito and the rest was history; the two made waves during the backend of the 2023 season.
This past December, Stellato was inducted into the Italian-American Hall of Fame. The list of famous Italian-Americans who have been inducted includes sports legends such as Joe DiMaggio, Yogi Berra and Vince Lombardi. Stellato mentioned how proud he is to be on the list with all those greats, and how important it was to him to have his family there.
“There’ve been so many Vince Lombardis, Joe DiMaggios and Yogi Berras, and to be able to stand on the shoulders of those great men, you had to pinch yourself,” said Stellato. “I just was so humbled by it, but the real Super Bowl victory was my mom, dad, my wife and kids and my brother being there.”
During the leadup to the NFL Draft, Stellato will be looking for up-and-coming players to add to his agency. Stellato is always on the go and continues to keep his underdog mentality in everything he does, to this day.
Edited by Jimmy Tsiantoulas and Luke Sassa
Graphic by Jaylen Rizzo; Photos from Sean Stellato
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