Sports
Sir Jim Ratcliffe has become the Glazers’ fireguard – and that suits them just fine
There are certain figures who hover into view at key moments of history, defining eras despite having little control over events.
You might remember Mohammed Saeed al-Sahhaf, who was dubbed by the UK media as ‘Comical Ali’ and became famous towards the end of the 2003 invasion of Iraq in his role as the country’s minister for information.
Al-Sahhaf offered bulletins throughout the conflict and as the Ba’ath Party’s position became worse, his messages became more optimistic. With rockets flying into Baghdad, according to Al-Sahhaf, the situation was well under control.
Saddam Hussein was nowhere to be seen. Everybody knew that everything happening was because of him and Al-Sahhaf’s front and centre presence instead gave an insight into just how useless the whole regime had become.
In fairness to Sir Jim Ratcliffe, at least he did not use one of his several media appearances this week to convince anyone that his football empire was not in danger of crumbling. Quite the opposite — the criticisms were meted out in liberal quantities, to a wide range of targets: a selection of unnamed senior players (“overpaid” and “not good enough”), former executives Richard Arnold and Ed Woodward (“Richard was a rugby man, he didn’t even understand football. Ed didn’t have the credentials to manage the club. He was a merchant banker, an accountant”), and even Ligue 1, with Ratcliffe saying he cannot bring himself to watch his other club, Nice, because “the level of football is not high enough for me to get excited”.
In fact, the only people Ratcliffe did not train his sights on were those most United fans deem culpable for the club’s decline — the Glazers, the U.S. family who, despite appearances, are the actual owners of the club courtesy of their 67.9 per cent controlling stake (the stake belonging to INEOS and its founder, Ratcliffe, is worth 28.94 per cent).
It was the Glazers who hired Arnold and Woodward, and the football executives who signed those apparently useless players. It was also on the Glazers’ watch that United’s financial position had, according to Ratcliffe on Monday, deteriorated to such an extent that the club was at risk of “going bust by Christmas”. Yet the main cause of that malaise — the crippling interest payments due on the £700million ($905.5m at current rates) worth of debt the Glazers’ leveraged buyout forced on United — also went curiously unmentioned.
Fans protest at the Glazers’ ownership (Carl Recine/Getty Images)
Then again, maybe it isn’t quite so curious. Ratcliffe is not allowed to publicly attack the Glazers due to the non-criticism clauses he agreed to when his minority investment was sanctioned in December 2023.
In legal terms, as revealed by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filing made at the time, this meant neither Ratcliffe or the Glazers “shall in any manner, directly or indirectly, make, or cause to be made any public statement or announcement that relates to or constitutes an ad hominem attack on, criticises, or otherwise disparage” the other party.
Ratcliffe knows that, as the owner with the lower share, he has to find a way to work with his partners, hence why he is so disinclined to talk about them in public. They were barely mentioned in the round of interviews Ratcliffe did on Monday with some British newspapers, the BBC and Gary Neville’s Overlap podcast (The Athletic were not offered the chance to speak to him); the Sunday Times had more joy in prising some thoughts out of Ratcliffe in an article which appeared online on Saturday but, for the most part, he toed the corporate line.
He suggested there wasn’t a “bad bone” in Joel Glazer’s body and that the family were “old East Coast” Americans — “they’re very polite, they’re very civilised, they’re the nicest people on the planet”. The subtext was that the family are too nice to do what Ratcliffe thinks needs to be done — namely, take a chainsaw to a bloated workforce.
Yet there were hints that the relationship between Ratcliffe and the Glazers is hardly close, given his remark to the Sunday Times that “we bought in and haven’t seen them since” and that they have largely retreated “into the shadows”.
The Glazers’ reputation is so bad that no amount of PR will change how they are viewed by most United fans, and maybe Ratcliffe was trying to subtly create a bit of distance from himself and his ownership partners. But the net effect of his publicity drive this week is that it is Ratcliffe who is in the line of fire.
An artist’s impression of United’s new stadium plan (Manchester United/Foster + Partners)
If you knew absolutely nothing about United, and nothing about football, you would look at all the coverage and assume that Ratcliffe is operating as a somewhat frazzled lone wolf given the way he lurched from warnings about bankruptcy to laying out plans for one of the most ambitious stadium projects the game has ever seen inside 24 hours.
The Glazers — whose opinion on all this stuff matters most given their controlling stake — have not uttered a word. We don’t know what they think about moving into a new 100,000-seater stadium that, if Ratcliffe has his way, will take just five years to build and cost around £2bn. It is the most significant decision the club has made since the Glazers’ takeover nearly 20 years ago, but their names have not appeared at the bottom of any of the bubbly press releases, and they certainly have not put themselves forward for interviews.
Not that this is new. The 20th anniversary of their takeover falls in June and, across the last two decades, the Glazers have probably said less about the club and revealed less about themselves than Ratcliffe has in the last seven days alone.
It must be stressed, especially from a journalist’s perspective, that being available is much better than being absent. Yet for the time being, Ratcliffe is doing little more than acting as a useful fireguard for the Glazers
United supporters know who has most of the power and this explains why the focus of their protests has remained consistent. Yet the more a filterless Ratcliffe runs around, attempting to explain the world away, the more he risks receiving an equal share of the blame when things go wrong.
(Top photo: Avram Glazer with Sir Jim Ratcliffe; Marc Atkins/Getty Images)
Martin Dugard is a prolific author and writer. He’s also an assistant cross-country coach at Santa Margarita after being head coach at JSerra for 15 years.
His newest book is “The Long Run,” which discusses the 1970s running boom and is a narrative history of four who sparked the marathon boom: Steve Prefontaine, Frank Shorter, Joan Benoit Samuelson and Grete Waitz.
He’s going to have a book signing on Saturday at 1 p.m. at Barnes & Noble, 26751 Aliso Creek Rd., Aliso Viejo.
Don’t be surprised if he tries to run from Rancho Santa Margarita to his book signing.
This is a daily look at the positive happenings in high school sports. To submit any news, please email eric.sondheimer@latimes.com.
For years, Stephen A. Smith’s many football blunders have been easy enough to explain away.
He’s not an NFL guy (remember when he said the three key players for a game were three guys who weren’t playing in the game?)
Stephen A. Smith falsely claimed the Warriors haven’t made the playoffs since 2022, but Golden State reached the second round in both 2023 and 2025. (Jerome Miron/Imagn Images)
He’s definitely not a college football guy (remember when he called Jalen Milroe Jalen “Milroy” multiple times and then read the wrong stat line after a College Football Playoff game?).
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ESPN forces him into those conversations because First Take has to talk football, and Smith knows that football is the most popular sport in the country and he needs to be seen as an authority (even though he isn’t).
But Monday’s latest mistake is a lot tougher to excuse, because this time Smith wasn’t talking about the NFL or college football. He was talking about the Golden State Warriors, one of the defining NBA dynasties of the last decade.
In other words, he was talking about the sport and the league that’s supposed to be his bread and butter.
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While discussing whether Steve Kerr has coached his last game with Golden State, Smith confidently stated the Warriors “haven’t been back to the playoffs since that championship in 2022.”
Golden State Warriors head coach Steve Kerr looks on during a game against the Sacramento Kings. (Robert Edwards/Imagn Images)
That’s not even close to true. Not only did Golden State make the playoffs last season, but they also reached the postseason in 2023. Last year, the Warriors made the playoffs, beat the Rockets in seven games and advanced to the second round before losing to the Timberwolves. In 2023, they beat the Sacramento Kings in the first round and before losing to the Lakers in the Western Conference semifinals.
So, Smith wouldn’t even have been right if he said they haven’t won a playoff series since 2022. But he didn’t say that. He said they didn’t make the playoffs in any of the past four years, except they did it twice.
Yikes.
This is not an obscure piece of NBA trivia that Smith could be easily forgiven for not knowing. Perhaps he was too busy playing solitaire on his phone and just missed two of the past three NBA postseasons. That’s a tough look for the guy who fancies himself as the No. 1 NBA analyst in the country.
And it’s a terrible look for ESPN, as they keep selling Smith as one of the faces of their NBA coverage.
Stephen A. Smith made a brutal gaffe while talking Warriors playoff history
If Smith made this kind of mistake while talking about the NFL, nobody would be shocked. At this point, sports fans practically expect him to butcher football analysis. It’s almost endearing that a guy with the ego of Smith can be so consistently wrong while also delivering every “fact” with the utmost confidence. It’s part of the Stephen A. experience.
But this one hits differently because the NBA is where he’s supposed to at least know the basics. This is where Smith prides himself as being an authority figure.
Stephen A. Smith incorrectly stated the Golden State Warriors haven’t made the playoffs since their 2022 championship, despite the team reaching the postseason twice since then. (Candice Ward/Imagn Images)
And yet he couldn’t keep the recent playoff history of the Warriors straight. The team whose head coach is in the news every other week. The team that has won four championships since 2014. Arguably one of the most important franchises in the NBA over the past 15 years.
Yes, Golden State missed the playoffs in 2024 after getting bounced in the Play-In Tournament (although they won 46 games that season). And yes, it fell short again this season. But that’s a lot different from acting like Steve Kerr has spent four years wandering the basketball wilderness since winning that 2022 title.
He hasn’t. In fact, the team is 175-153 in the past four regular seasons.
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The Warriors made the second round in 2023. They made the second round again in 2025.
Before burying Steve Kerr on national television, maybe Stephen A. Smith could take 10 seconds to confirm whether the Warriors were actually, you know, in the playoffs.
A legendary NFL coach found linebacker Rod Martin not by scouting him at USC, but almost by accident.
The Oakland Raiders had a throwaway 12th-round pick in the 1977 draft, and then-coach John Madden grew frustrated hearing his personnel executives contemplate using it on a basketball player or track guy. Finally, Madden blurted out that he could find a random kid walking around the USC campus in sandals who could make more of an impact than that.
“Ron Wolf says, ‘All right, smart guy,’” recalled Madden’s son, Mike. “So they were a couple picks away and dad goes, ‘Let me call [USC coach] John Robinson.’”
Robinson had one question: Has Rod Martin been drafted?
Raiders linebacker Rod Martin stands on the field during a game against the Buffalo Bills on Dec. 6, 1987, at the Coliseum.
(Mike Powell / Getty Images)
“Dad goes, ‘What position does he play?’” the younger Madden said. “Robinson tells him Martin is a linebacker, and dad goes, ‘Good. Tough guy we can knock around in training camp. Have him run down on kicks.’ And Robinson says, ‘No, John. Rod Martin will make your team.’”
Martin did a lot more than make the team. He would go on to set a Super Bowl record with three interceptions in one of the most dominant defensive performances in championship history.
Martin, who would play his entire 12-year career with the Oakland then Los Angeles Raiders, is dead at age 72. The Raiders announced his death Monday but did not specify a cause of death.
“The Raiders family is deeply saddened by the passing of Rod Martin, a standout linebacker and key player on two Super Bowl championship teams,” read a team statement.
The franchise called Martin, “a beloved member of the Raiders Family and a favorite of Raiders fans everywhere.”
A two-time Super Bowl winner and a two-time Pro Bowl selection, Martin saved his best game for the biggest stage. In Super Bowl XV at the Louisiana Superdome, he intercepted Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Ron Jaworski three times in a 27-10 Raiders victory.
“What I remember about Rod was his ability to diagnose and react,” Jaworski said by phone Monday. “In the Super Bowl, he makes two phenomenal plays. He has three interceptions, but interceptions one and two — I’d like to say they were bad decisions on my part. They weren’t. I tried to squeeze throws in. He just made a great play. He was a great athlete.”
Three years later, Martin was still a key component to the Raiders’ defense in a Super Bowl victory over Washington. He had a sack of quarterback Joe Theismann, a fumble recovery, and a fourth-and-one stop of John Riggins late in the third quarter of a 38-9 blowout.
Born in Welch, W. Va., the son of a coal miner grew up in Los Angeles and attended Hamilton High before going on to play at Los Angeles City College and USC. The NFL saw him as a tweener, too small for linebacker at 210 pounds and too slow to play safety. Clearly, that was a faulty assessment.
Hall of Fame quarterback Warren Moon was two years behind Martin at Hamilton, and the two remained friends throughout the decades that followed.
“We met when I was a sophomore,” Moon said. “He was a senior — middle linebacker, fullback and center on the basketball team. He was the ultimate athlete. At the time I was there, I looked up to him quite a lot.
“He wasn’t the biggest guy in the world, but he was big enough. He had the strongest hands and the strongest forearms. He could just take a tight end or whoever came to block him, grab his pads, shove him off and go make the play. He was just a real solid player.”
It was those hands that grabbed an opportunity with the Raiders and didn’t let go.
“So dad goes marching into the draft room,” Madden said, “looks at Ron and everybody else and says, ‘We’re going to take Rod Martin, linebacker, USC.’ And they did.”
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