NFL Star-Turned-Prep School Dean Caught In Steamy Affair With Much Younger Employee, Fired 2 Co-Workers Who Complained About Their Romance

This article was originally published on Total Pro Sports.

Sullivan Welborne, a former NFL player turned athletics dean at the prestigious Lawrenceville School, is at the center of a controversial lawsuit alleging an affair with a much younger employee.

The affair is one thing, but what came from it has also been in question, and it resulted in the firing of two veteran employees who complained about the conduct.

Welborne, who was once one of the best wide receivers in the country when he came out of high school in North Carolina, is now being accused of splitting the middle of another woman while on his job.

While the NFL headlines have been dominated by Shedeur Sanders’ first career start that got the President to speak out, Sullivan’ Tripp’ Welborne has become the talk of New Jersey, after it was alleged he is having an affair with a much younger employee, and how it resulted in promotions that she did not earn.

The 57-year-old, who played college football for Michigan and briefly featured in the NFL for the Vikings before an injury forced him into retirement, has been having an affair with Nicole Stock, according to the New York Post.

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According to the lawsuit, Sullivan, a father of two, created a role for Stock, which included gifting her an ATV.

Welborne is 57, while Stock is 38.

Two former employees at Lawrenceville, Karla Despinis and Richard Rienzo, blew the whistle by filing a lawsuit against the private school, alleging they were fired earlier this year after complaining about the affair between Sullivan and Stock.

Both former employees allegedly complained separately to the school about the relationship back in 2022.

Rienzo spoke to the New York Post, saying, “Their parents pay good money to send them to this school where the adults are supposed to be role models and educators and coaches, and they are witnessing behavior that is inappropriate for adults to witness, but I think even more for impressionable minds to witness.”

The former employees had worked at the school for two decades. In March 2025, both would find out, a day apart, that the school would not renew their contracts.

In the lawsuit, Rienzo and Despinis allege Sullivan Welborne helped introduce a second-in-command director of athletics position to his role, which he gave to Stock in 2024. He chose her over them, and their suspicions only got bigger.

Rienzo and Despinis first suspected that Welborne and Stock were having an affair as early as 2021, when they noticed them flirting heavily and spending more time together. Stock reportedly “grabbed defendant Welborne’s butt at a defendant Lawrenceville hockey game”, according to the lawsuit.

The lawsuit, per the NY Post, claimed:

“After decades of employment with Defendant Lawrenceville, Plaintiffs were forced out of their roles when, upon information and belief, Defendant Welborne, plaintiffs’ married supervisor, began an inappropriate quid-pro-quo sexual, gender-based, and/or romantic relationship with another employee, Nicole Stock, wherein Defendant Welborne rewarded Ms. Stock with gifts, favorable treatment, and promotions.”

The lawsuit further added: “It became increasingly clear to Plaintiffs that Defendant Welborne and Ms. Stock were likely engaging in a quid pro quo sexual relationship.

“Plaintiffs reasonably believed that Defendant Welborne was using his position of power to entice Ms. Stock into a sexual relationship in exchange for preferential treatment at work.”

A spokeswoman for Lawrenceville, Jessica Welsh, said the school denies the claims by Despinis and Rienzo.