A sports agent from Mass. went viral. He isn’t ready to fade away.
Sean Stellato is from Salem, Massachusetts, and to this day lives in the Boston area. His vibes, nevertheless, are pure New Jersey.
On a Friday morning in late July, the New York Giants were deep into training camp for the upcoming season, with dozens of athletes hoping to secure one of 53 spots on the team. Across the street, at MetLife Stadium, Sean Stellato swaggered through the largely empty corridors, totally at ease.
Stellato, a sports agent who represents Tommy DeVito, one of the Giants’ quarterbacks, wore an immaculately tailored light blue, double-breasted pinstripe suit, which he paired with snakeskin Gucci loafers, a gold Rolex Yacht Master II watch and a smorgasbord of diamond jewelry, including an enormous gold ring, studded with diamonds, commemorating his induction into the National Italian American Sports Hall of Fame.
Naturally, Stellato also wore a fedora — his signature accessory. It was big and crimson, made by Bellissimo. He almost exclusively wears fedoras made by Bellissimo and the Italian company Borsalino, which, he said, manufactures “the Rolex of fedoras.”
He walked up to the stands: Section 109, Row 36, Seat 20. The exact place he had been sitting Dec. 11, 2023. The day his life changed.
That evening, he had gone to watch his client, an undrafted rookie quarterback, start a nationally televised “Monday Night Football” game. DeVito surprised NFL fans everywhere with a late-game drive that gave the Giants a victory over the Green Bay Packers, who were favored to win. After a Giants touchdown, television cameras cut to Stellato, clad in a black suit, gold chain and, of course, a fedora. He was pinching his fingers in a stereotypically Italian American manner, as DeVito’s father, Tom, planted a kiss on his cheek.
“The agent may break the internet,” one of the ESPN broadcasters said. He was correct.
Stellato’s client had played the best game of his young career, but social media could not get enough of the hitherto unknown agent. His Italian American-ness was of particular interest. Steven van Zandt, an actor and a member of Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band, who portrayed the consigliere Silvio Dante on “The Sopranos,” wrote on social platform X that Stellato was “the Silvio of the Family.” On “The Tonight Show,” host Jimmy Fallon dressed up as Stellato and sang a rendition of Dean Martin’s “That’s Amore” about DeVito while holding an Italian sub.
Hearing Stellato speak, one might assume that he is from the New York metropolitan area. One would be wrong. He is from Salem, Massachusetts, and to this day lives in the Boston area. His vibes, nevertheless, are pure New Jersey.
It is the type of story that often flames out quickly, with an internet sensation’s 15 minutes of fame slipping away as quickly as they arrived. But life has yet to slow down for Stellato. He has continued to be inundated with media requests. He went to the ESPY Awards and the Kentucky Derby. In June, he was invited to Italy to meet the pope. He’s still relentlessly hustling for the 26 current and former NFL players and coaches that his agency, Stellato Sports, represents. Four of those clients signed with him after he came into public view, with Stellato saying he is unsure of the effect his sudden fame had on landing them. “The Rolodex got enhanced,” he admitted, “on and off the field.”
It has yet to feel normal.
“Just being at the stadium, kind of absorbing the last seven and a half months, it’s almost like a dream that continues to happen,” he said. “It was like a nor’easter, a hurricane, a tornado, my birthday and Christmas all tied in one.”
He then opened his suit jacket to show its interior lining, a photo collage featuring important moments from his life. The biggest image of all is a screengrab from that Monday Night Football broadcast: Stellato, in all his fedora glory, standing on the field, talking on the phone; Tommy DeVito standing next to him wearing a Giants hoodie, looking off into the distance.
Stellato hopped in his Lexus to go across the street to watch DeVito and another client, tight end Chris Manhertz, at Giants training camp. Before entering the facility, he traded his fedora for a leather Gucci Yankees cap at the request of DeVito’s parents, Tom and Alexandra, who, according to Stellato, asked him not to wear a fedora, in order to keep things “low key.” When the DeVitos saw Stellato, fedora-less, at training camp, they greeted him with hugs and warm hellos, and proceeded to take several selfies. (The DeVitos declined to be interviewed for this article.)
For the most part, Stellato is basking in his newfound notoriety. He seems to enjoy being recognized by strangers, and he always carries around football trading cards to give to children. His fame helped him land a partnership with Hyatt hotels. He said, several times, that he hoped to use his moment in the spotlight to find new opportunities for his clients.
Stellato originally dreamed of playing professional football himself, spending two years as a wide receiver in the Arena Football League after graduating from New York’s Marist College. He eventually went into finance and then became an agent in 2013.
“There’s a lot of great football players that go undrafted, that are underdogs, that never get the exposure,” he said. “My goal has been to service my clients, to build it brick by brick. Over the last 10 years, at Stellato Sports, we’ve been able to do that, and you never know when that moment is going to come. In martial arts, my instructor always used to tell me, ‘Expect the unexpected.’”
His clients seem to, at the very least, get a kick out of the whole thing. “I mean shoot, we used that to monetize on and off the field,” Tommy DeVito said. “And do a lot of good. Like recently, we went to a middle school to some Italian classes and hung out with some kids.”
Meanwhile Stellato used his newfound influencer powers to get Manhertz a free fedora. “He hooked me up with one,” the tight end said. “My wife likes it.”
“Happy wife, happy life,” Stellato interjected.
A relentlessly positive guy, Stellato didn’t have much to say about the drawbacks of fame. But he did admit that he found the discourse about his Italian American-ness both funny and kind of offensive. “Reading a book by its cover? Shame on you, man,” he said. “You know Italians, a lot of people stereotype. ‘The Sopranos,’ ‘Goodfellas,’ ‘Donnie Brasco,’ all great movies. But you know, at the end of the day, they don’t know why I wear a fedora or pinstripe suits. It isn’t to play a character.”
(His biggest style influence, he said, is his grandmother, who worked in the menswear section of the department store Filene’s.)
He has, nevertheless, used the discourse around his Italian-ness to his advantage. While attending the NFL Honors awards show, an interviewer asked Stellato whom he would trade closets with for a day, if given the chance.
“I said, ‘the pope.’ I think someone got wind of it over in Italy,” he said, which is how he got an invite to travel to the Vatican to meet Pope Francis. “I’ve always admired Vatican City, my heritage, St. Peter’s Square and the fact that, how the pope anoints a lot of people with a lot of blessings, he always looks prestige.” Stellato gifted the pope a customized football.
“I got to sit in the presence of Your Holiness and have a conversation with him in basic Italian,” Stellato said. “I told him, ‘Sono un agente sportivo’ — I am a sports agent, and this is a regalo, a gift for you.
“And he passed a little wisdom on,” Stellato added. “He said, ‘You’re glorifying God with your work.’ When we locked eyes, it was almost like a sense of blessings ran through my DNA.”
As the 2024 football season approaches, Stellato is still working hard for his clients, and even though his fame has helped him and his players sign branding deals, in the NFL, nothing is guaranteed. (During the interview, Stellato received a call from someone in the New York Jets front office informing him that one of his clients didn’t make the team.) Through it all, Stellato still views himself as an underdog. And he likes it that way.
“I’ve always tried to be a source of inspiration for the underdog,” Stellato said. “I’m very fortunate, very blessed, very grateful to represent really high character, talented, underdog young men that appreciate what I bring to the table.”
That includes hustle, encouragement, positive thinking and the occasional free fedora.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
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