Dajah Stallings ’21 heads to the Super Bowl

You know about former Carolina quarterback Drake Maye leading the New England Patriots to the Super Bowl. Serious fans might also be able to name the other three Tar Heels — Chazz Surratt, Mack Hollins and Amari Gainer — on the two Super Bowl rosters.

But here’s your introduction to Dajah Stallings ’21, another Super Bowl-bound Tar Heel who prepared for a pro football career in Chapel Hill.

A native of Durham, North Carolina, Stallings works for the Seattle Seahawks as their community engagement and legends coordinator.

She will soon board a plane headed to Santa Clara, California, for the Feb. 8 matchup between the Seahawks and Patriots.

“The energy in the building is amazing,” Stallings said. “Everybody comes in smiling, even if there’s no sun outside.”

Stallings’ responsibilities are twofold:

Through events, programming and community engagement, she helps former Seahawks players, “legends,” stay engaged with the organization, the Seattle community and their former teammates. The work is of even greater importance this year as the Seahawks celebrate their 50th season.

She also coordinates community engagement opportunities for current players, whether it be an idea a player had or their participation in a team-run event.

For example, when Seattle stars Jaxon Smith-Njigba and Devon Witherspoon wanted to host a Thanksgiving event at a homeless shelter for women and children, Stallings and her colleagues helped them pull it off.

“Our mascot came. The kids just had a really wonderful evening at the Thanksgiving buffet and engaged with the players,” said Stallings, who also helps coordinate outings like local grocery trips where the team’s rookies will cover community members’ purchases.

On home game days, Stallings is busy supervising and escorting former players, making sure everything goes smoothly with fan meet-and-greets and autograph signings. She also helps facilitate their travel and stay.

Whether with current or former players, this work is up Stallings’ alley.

She previously interned with the Cleveland Browns, Washington Commanders and the NFL Players Association. At Carolina, she worked in fan engagement, recruiting and player-development roles for the football program.

“That’s always been my passion: supporting players in their transition in and out of football and helping them to discover who they are outside of being an athlete,” Stallings said.

Discovering her passion while studying at Carolina wasn’t straightforward for Stallings — and required perseverance.

‘No experience is wasted’

Ask Stallings about how she landed on a career in sports, and she’ll say, “I do not have a pretty story.”

Many can relate to overcoming challenges and pivoting while in college. She did both.

“I ended my freshman year at UNC with a 1.7 GPA,” Stallings said. “I ended up having to go to summer school, which was the biggest blessing because there was a class called Intro to Sport Administration.”

In that class, she realized she could combine her sports passion with business (her originally planned major) and was met with enthusiasm by professor Bob Malekoff (now retired), who “reaches out to this day.” “He was very passionate about the sports industry and the potential that my career could have in it,” Stallings said.

Stallings said she was fortunate to attend a “prominent university with a prominent athletic department” and loved her experience working with Tar Heel football. She considers Kyra Kendrick, then the director of the football program’s on-campus recruiting, a mentor and friend.

“She was the first Black woman I saw in a leadership role in sports,” said Stallings, the first Black woman in her role with the Seahawks.

Stallings’ takeaway from her initial academic struggles is that tough times can become useful with time.

“No experience is wasted,” she said.

In her case, it even led to the Super Bowl.