On Sept. 21, 2019, Derek Stingley Jr. snared his first college interception, leaping to beat Vanderbilt's wideout on a jump ball for an underthrown deep pass. They crashed to the turf and Stingley's helmet wound up in the receiver's hands. Unmasked, he sprung to his feet smiling and waved his fingers to the crowd.
"He is keeping alive a wonderful football family name," Tom Hart, the play-by-play commentator, said on the telecast.
In 2019, Stingley was the freshman fulcrum and hometown headliner of LSU's last championship defense. The shutdown cornerback from Baton Rouge, Louisiana, nicked passes in four straight games during the Tigers' undefeated season. Stingley's dad, Derek, an arena football great and his mentor in the sport, secretly brought to the national final a vintage New England Patriots jersey, red with the No. 84 and their surname on the back.
The jersey belonged to Darryl Stingley, the wide receiver who was paralyzed on a brutal hit that made the Stingley name famous without defining it. A go-to deep threat for New England in his mid-20s, Darryl died in 2007 at 55, of causes that included quadriplegia and his spinal cord injury. He'd seen his son Derek establish a niche as a pro - defensive playmaker on a title team - and begin to coach.
