These days, former Villanova quarterback Tom Colombo is a businessman selling office supplies, but his latest mark on Philadelphia's sports scene shows he still has the crowd's roar in his blood.
As a quarterback at Villanova - he'd been a freshman walk-on, standing 5-foot-7 - Colombo threw for more than 2,500 yards and 20 touchdowns in 1991, leading the Wildcats to a 10-2 record and setting what was then a school record for wins in a season. He'd come from Brockton, Mass., where his Uncle Rock, his mother's brother, was undefeated heavyweight boxing champion Rocky Marciano (who died in a plane crash when Colombo was 13 months old).
Last year, Colombo opened the Philadelphia office for W.B. Mason, an office-supplies dealer based in his hometown. One of his first big deals was to get the company's name up with the corporate heavyweights on the scoreboard tower at Citizens Bank Park.
His deal with the Phillies includes the 14-by-36-foot W.B. Mason sign next to the big video screen, two TV commercials per game, some premium tickets to give to clients, and sponsorship of the weekend pregame show on WPSG-TV (Channel 57). The dollar value of the package is undisclosed, but, he says, "dollar for dollar, we're getting as much exposure as Citizens Bank."
Colombo coached football around New England after graduating from Villanova, then in 2000 was hired by Brockton-based W.B. Mason in a sales job, joining a lot of guys from the old neighborhood.
W.B. Mason does about $300 million a year in sales, competing with Staples, Office Depot, and other corporate office-supplies dealers. The company has been on a sports-marketing tear. Last season it became the first advertiser on the Green Monster - the left-field wall at Boston's Fenway Park - since 1947. The company's old-fashioned logo created only limited resentment from purists. (There was some fan backlash over Mason's commercials in the Boston market, intended to be funny, called "The Truth About Ruth." They showed Red Sox World Series banners that might have been if the Sox hadn't needed to sell Babe Ruth to the Yankees in 1919 after paying too much for office supplies.)
When Mason was looking toward the Philadelphia region last year, Colombo pushed for the job as branch manager. He has jumped into the local office-supplies market with the same drive he had as an undersized walk-on at Villanova.
"I feel the same way I felt as a freshman at Villanova," he says. "There is a great opportunity here, but it's going to take a lot of hustle."
Can you hear Mark Cuban cussing now? Finnish cell-phone giant Nokia is now the official mobile-phone company of the NBA and WNBA.
As part of the two-way hookup, Nokia will be a featured advertiser in basketball telecasts, and basketball telecasts will be featured in Nokia phones. The company says its video phones soon will offer NBA game highlights, news and scores. It's the first deal for daily video content between a mobile-phone company and a pro league.
Marlin Mansion. The Florida Marlins are still $60 million short - exactly 20 Jeff Conine salaries - in their bid to start building a 38,000-seat baseball-only stadium near the Orange Bowl in Miami.
The team was hoping to get a $60 million tax subsidy from the state to wrap up the $325 million it thinks it needs for the new park. The city of Miami and Miami-Dade County already promised a big portion of the funds as well as the site, in an arrangement under which the team would pay a fee to lease the park and promise to cover construction-cost overruns.
But Friday the state legislature decided not to give up any money, leaving the Marlins playing indefinitely at Pro Player Stadium, which it shares with the Miami Dolphins. Its lease there makes it hard for the World Series champs to turn a profit, the team claims. The Marlins get no money from luxury-box rentals or parking, and just a portion of concession sales. The team says it lost more than $19 million last year.
Florida Marlins president David Samson issued a statement Saturday saying nothing much new: "We had hoped for a positive result this legislative session. We will now discuss with the county and city all possibilities remaining which will enable us to complete a retractable roof facility by Opening Day 2007."