Media watch
NEW YORK -- The co-producer of the upcoming Broadway play Lombardi, about the life of former
Green Bay Packers coach Vince Lombardi, is not a theater veteran but longtime sports TV executive Tony Ponturo.
Ponturo previously ran Anheuser-Busch's sports sponsorships and media buying. After leaving the brewer, he started Ponturo Management Group and then developed the play last year with co-producer Fran Kirmser.
Starring The Wonder Years' Dan Lauria, Lombardi opens Oct. 21. It's the start of a pop culture comeback for the charismatic coach, who won five NFL titles and Super Bowls I and II.
ESPN Films has cast Academy Award-winning actor Robert De Niro as Lombardi in a movie slated to open in late 2011 or early 2012.
Ponturo says late-blooming Lombardi's rise from obscure high school football coach in New Jersey to coaching jobs with Fordham, West Point, the New York Giants, Packers and Washington Redskins can provide lessons.
"At 35, he was still a high school coach at St. Cecilia. He didn't really get to the Packers until his mid-40s. Then by 57 he unfortunately passed away. So all of this aura that we think about with Vince Lombardi happened in this 10-year window," Ponturo says.
"Lombardi's frustration was, 'I'm never going to be a head coach.' Then he goes to Green Bay (for his first head coaching job in 1959) and creates sports history. It's a pretty amazing story. We're trying to tell the story of anyone who's successful, who's sacrificed, who's refused to give up. We've all, somewhere along the line, had doubts. 'Am I going in the right direction?' So I think people will relate to it."
