Sheepshead’s Most Famous Resident Goes Hollywood

Who is Sheepshead Bay’s most famous resident? No, it’s not Larry David or Andrew Dice Clay. It’s not Michelle Trachtenberg or Winsor McCay. Charles Schumer? Well, he traded in his roots to move to Park Slope…

It’s Vince Lombardi, the football legend who turned the Green Bay Packers into one of the NFL’s flagship franchises, and for whom the Super Bowl trophy is named. Don’t believe me? Lombardi’s even got a square named after him (at East 14th Street, where Sheepshead Bay Road and Avenue Z meet), and a plaque in the sidewalk near Jerome Avenue and East 17th Street. What’s Larry David got?

Now Lombardi is being honored by not one, not even two, but three major productions about him, his work and his life.

The most notable is an ESPN Films production based on Lombardi’s early years in Green Bay that will premiere in January 2012. Robert DeNiro is taking the star role.

A Broadway play is also hitting the stage very soon. Titled simply Lombardi, the show is based on David Maraniss’ celebrated biography, When Pride Still Mattered. It previews later this month and is slated for a full opening on October 21 at Circle in the Square.

Finally, HBO is putting the final touches on a documentary also called Lombardi, which debuts in December. It’s going to focus not just on his football coaching, but also how the man was conflicted about the era in which he lived. Lombardi was torn during the 1960s between being a staunch supporter of civil rights, but one that was dismayed by the violence of the times.

“Kids know the name on the (Super Bowl) trophy and they know that he said ‘Winning isn’t everything, it’s the only thing,’ but they don’t know the man,” said HBO president Ross Greenburg. “It’s time to fill in the blanks.”

I ask again: what’s Larry David got?

[via Cinema News]