Donte' Stallworth is back in Baltimore.
The longtime receiver has joined the Ravens coaching staff as an intern for the summer as part of the NFL's minority coaching fellowship program. Stallworth will work on Head Coach John Harbaugh's staff until training camp concludes in mid-August.
"It was like the perfect situation for me," Stallworth said. "It couldn't get any better."
Stallworth, 33, played 10 seasons in the NFL, and will work with the receivers during his internship in Baltimore.
He played for the Ravens in 2010, but dealt with injuries for much of the season and saw action in eight games. He caught two passes for 82 yards during that season. Stallworth last played in the NFL in 2012 when he suited up for the New England Patriots for one game. Over the course of his career, Stallworth caught 321 passes for 4,837 yards.
Stallworth has not officially retired from the NFL, but felt like it was time to start moving in a direction other than his playing career.
"I thought about it and I was like, I could still play, but there are a lot of other things I want to do. And I didn't really want to force trying to go out and make a team," Stallworth said. "All good things come to an end."
Harbaugh and Stallworth have known each other since they were in Philadelphia together in 2006. They have maintained a friendship since that time, and Stallworth reached out to Harbaugh after the 2013 season about the possibility of doing the coaching fellowship.
"Once I told him I wanted to do it, he was excited about it. And that got me more excited about it," Stallworth said.
In addition to gaining experience in the coaching realm, Stallworth is also getting a taste of life as a broadcaster. Hs will participate in the NFL's broadcast boot camp next week at NFL Films in New Jersey, where current and former players learn the television business.
The Bill Walsh NFL Minority Coaching Fellowship is administered through the league's player engagement department to increase the number of full-time minority coaches in the league. Walsh introduced the idea to the league in 1987 when he brought in a group of minority coaches into his San Francisco 49ers training camp, and eventually every team became a participant in the program.
The Ravens have hired three other coaches to participate in the program this year. The other participants in the coaching fellowship are former NFL defensive back Sam Madison, Richan Gaskins from Gallaudet University and Tsuyoshi Kawata from Stanford.
Madison spent 12 years in the NFL with the Miami Dolphins and New York Giants, and last played in 2008. Madison also worked on Tom Coughlin's staff in New York for training camp last season.
Gaskins is in his second season as the defensive backs coach at Gallaudet, and he is a graduate of Duquesne where he played linebacker.
Kawata is an offensive assistant at Stanford, where he has been on staff for the last seven years. He previously worked as a volunteer assistant under Jim Harbaugh when he was the head coach of the program.
