Sean Stellato is a viral NFL agent. He’s also a Clemson football uncle

Troy Stellato was taking it easy last Monday night as he and the rest of his Clemson football teammates got back into the swing of things with bowl practice.

Then his family group chats started blowing up.

“Turn the TV on. Sean’s going crazy.”

Over on ABC, millions of viewers tuning into “Monday Night Football” had been enthralled by much more than the New York Giants-Green Bay Packers game about to kick off. Or the entertaining backstory of Tommy DeVito, the Giants’ rookie starting quarterback.

Sean Stellato, DeVito’s agent, had already stolen the show — and he kept stealing the show, even as the Giants and Packers delivered a late-night thriller.

Nobody on the internet could get enough of Stellato, whose first moment of fame came pregame, when the broadcast found him on the field next to DeVito, taking a phone call while decked out in a pinstripe suit, a turtleneck and a fedora.

Later in the game, a clip of him kissing DeVito’s father on the cheek in the MetLife Stadium stands after the quarterback threw a touchdown pass also went viral.

He was mysterious and charming and fascinating and meme-worthy and, in the words of a People magazine the following morning, “extremely Italian.”

He was also Troy Stellato’s uncle.

“It’s surreal,” Stellato, a redshirt sophomore wide receiver for the Tigers, told The State last week. “It’s still all over my phone. I’m scrolling and I still see it — all of the memes.”

And he’s got a response for anyone wondering whether his uncle was perhaps hamming it up just a little for the cameras, in terms of how he dressed or how he acted in primetime.

“That’s just how he is,” Stellato said, laughing.

A football connection

Sean is not only Troy’s uncle but his godfather, too, the younger brother of Troy’s dad, Eric Stellato, and a constant presence in his life, football or otherwise.

Sean was a standout high school football and basketball player in the Boston area in the 1990s before playing wide receiver at Marist College in Upstate New York and in the Arena Football League. He’s now a longtime sports agent who runs his own firm, Stellato Enhanced Sports, and was inducted into the National Italian American Sports Hall of Fame over the weekend.

“He’s super encouraging,” Troy said. “He gives me advice. He’s been a player, so he’s been through it. I look up to him, for sure. He’s been awesome just growing up. He’s my godfather, so we’re really, really close.”

Given that, it makes sense that people on the platform X (formerly Twitter) first started making the connection between Troy and Sean when a scroll through the latter Stellato’s account revealed a hefty amount of Clemson content.

This year alone, Sean has made it to two Clemson games: the Tigers’ Sept. 30 game at Syracuse in Upstate New York (a much shorter trip for Sean, given he resides in the Boston area) and Clemson’s Nov. 18 home finale and senior day against UNC.

As luck would have it, he was in the JMA Wireless Dome to watch Troy, his nephew, score his first career touchdown on a scramble drill throw from quarterback Cade Klubnik vs. Syracuse.

“Special moment ... so happy for my nephew! Keep evolving Troy!” Sean posted on X a few days after that game, a 31-14 Clemson win.

That was indeed a special moment for Troy, a decorated four-star 2021 recruit who only played in two of a possible 27 games during his first two seasons at Clemson due to various injuries, including a season-ending torn ACL before the 2022 campaign.

Finally healthy, he’s caught 34 passes for 279 yards and a touchdown this season and projects as one of Clemson’s top receiving options in the Dec. 29 Gator Bowl vs. Kentucky with Beaux Collins, another outside receiver, transferring to Notre Dame.

Authentic as can be

In other words, it’s been a big year already for the Stellatos, who Troy describes as a proud Italian family. Troy’s great grandfather on his dad’s side was born in Italy and immigrated to the United States, and because of that “it’s in our blood, man,” he said. “It’s our heritage, for sure.”

And take it from him: Sean — who fits right in with DeVito, his client who’s impressed as a rookie quarterback while embracing his own Italian heritage and earning the nickname “Tommy Cutlets” — is as authentic as they come.

Fancy suits? He wears them all the time. Kisses on the cheek? Troy’s been on the receiving end of them. The Italian hand gesture Sean pulled out during “Monday Night Football,” pursing his thumb, pointer finger and middle finger together after a big DeVito play in a universal symbol for something being just good?

“He’s definitely done that before — the little uh-uh,” Troy said, pursing his own fingers together. “The way he talks and everything, too. … If you’re Italian, you wear it on your chest for sure. It’s by the look, by the outfits, by the food we eat, all that type of stuff. So it’s definitely cool.”

Due to Clemson’s bowl game, Troy won’t be able to make it to this year’s Stellato family Christmas celebration. Held annually in the Boston area, it’s a meet-up heavy on quality time and high-quality Italian food, courtesy of Stellato’s grandmother: spaghetti and meatballs, pizza and rigatoni, a variety of chicken cutlets (Troy’s personal favorite).

And it’ll surely be dominated by talk of Sean, who, since his viral moment a week ago, has done interviews with The New York Times, CNN and “The Pat McAfee Show”; been parodied on “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon”; and drawn more attention than ever to a sports agency he built from the ground up.

Down in Upstate South Carolina, though, he’s already got a longtime fan in Troy, his nephew and his godson, who’s having a breakout football year of his own and probably said or texted some version of “Yes, that’s my uncle — my real uncle” two dozen times since last Monday. Which doesn’t bother him one bit.

“He’s just a crazy hard worker,” Troy said. “I’ve seen all the behind the scenes stuff he’s done, and he deserves all the recognition he’s getting right now. … And like DeVito said, it’s definitely great for business.”