Married Ex-NFL Player Sullivan “Tripp” Welborne is in trouble over his alleged affair with Nicole Stock.
Buckle up, because things just got very dramatic at The Lawrenceville School, yes, that ultra-posh New Jersey school where your kid better get a scholarship if they can’t pay $80k a year. The Head of Athletics there? None other than Sullivan “Tripp” Welborne, you might remember him as a former NFL player.
Apparently, Tripp has been keeping more than just playbooks these days. A lawsuit filed claims he’s been having affair with a younger employee, Nicole Stock, and now, it’s all over the tabloids.
“Welborne would spend gamedays riding around on Ms. Stock’s John Deere ATV,” the suit claims.
Karla Despinis and Richard Rienzo, two former longtime top employees of the elite boarding school, where tuition tops $80,000, filed the suit after they were fired earlier this year for complaining about the affair, court documents allege.
“It was at a boarding high school where 800 plus adolescents go to school every day,’’ Rienzo told The Post.
“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.”
This lawsuit could ruin Sullivan’s reputation and I hope he gets out of it.
The boss and underling sat so close in meetings that their thighs touched, they play-slapped each other’s arms, jokingly bumped their legs under the table and shared a laptop during meetings — despite each having their own, the suit claims.
Stock even once “grabbed defendant Welborne’s butt at a defendant Lawrenceville hockey game,” the filing says.
The illicit pair also “giggled” with each other and carried out inside conversations during meetings, the filing alleges.
Other signs of Welborne’s and Stock’s relationship included him keeping his bikes at Stock’s place despite living at a home close to campus that had a garage, the suit says.
A lot happens behind the scenes and if this lawsuit is anything to be taken seriously, then it’s a big blow to Sullivan.
The pair claim in court documents that their colleagues’ hook-up is the reason for Stock’s undeserving meteoric rise in the department and that it resulted in them being unfairly sidelined.
“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 suit says.
“It became increasingly clear to Plaintiffs that Defendant Welborne and Ms. Stock were likely engaging in a quid pro quo sexual relationship,” the filing alleges.
“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.
“Welborne went so far as to create a new role in order to promote Ms. Stock,” the suit alleges.
At this point, Sullivan “Tripp” Welborne needs to lawyer up to clear his name in this messy lawsuit. We wish him well!
