Sports
Ryan Giggs and football: A very complicated relationship
The celebration was almost as glorious as the goal itself. The fuzz of chest hair, the twirling shirt, the body swerve to evade the Manchester United fans who had run on the pitch in their euphoria.
On Sunday, it is 25 years since Patrick Vieira, a genuine great of Arsenal’s midfield, played a wayward pass amid the high drama of an FA Cup semi-final between the leading two English sides of the time.
Ryan Giggs took the ball and then he was off and running, picking up speed from inside his own half, slaloming past opponents, one by one.
Vieira tried to get back but Giggs, crossing the halfway line, dipped his shoulder to get away. Lee Dixon was next to come across. He, too, could not get near him.
Arsenal had the most famously parsimonious defence in English football — yet Giggs had magic in his feet. He was on his own, with everyone to beat, under the floodlights of Villa Park. Martin Keown went to block him. Dixon was still in the chase. Giggs shimmied between them both and suddenly, with a sway of his hips, he was in the penalty area, sizing up David Seaman, the Arsenal and England goalkeeper.
His shot was still rising as it flew into the roof of the net. It was pandemonium in the stands and Martin Tyler’s voice, commentating for Sky Sports, seemed to have gone up a few octaves.
“He’s cut Arsenal to ribbons,” summed it up rather beautifully.
It’s a Thursday night in Radlett, a well-to-do village in London’s commuter belt, and a beery, boisterous crowd has broken into song.
Ryan Giggs, now 50, has wandered onto the stage of the 300-capacity Radlett Centre. The venue is not full, but there is a racket anyway. He is greeted with a standing ovation and a song that will be familiar to United fans of a certain generation. It is an adaptation of the old Robin Hood classic.
Ryan Giggs, Ryan Giggs, running down the wing
Ryan Giggs, Ryan Giggs, running down the wing
Feared by the Blues, loved by the Reds
Ryan Giggs, Ryan Giggs, Ryan Giggs!
It doesn’t take long, therefore, to realise that whatever else has happened in Giggs’ life in the last few years — most notably, the criminal trial that led to him relinquishing his position as Wales national manager — there is no shortage of people who regard him as football royalty.
He has already done Cleethorpes, Hull and Lincoln since being acquitted last year of being a violent and abusive boyfriend. There was a night in Belfast and an event in Chester. Another “Evening with Ryan Giggs” is scheduled in Northampton, plus two in Manchester alongside Paul Scholes, his former United team-mate. It is not quite Giggs on tour, but it does feel like a man putting himself back out there.
Is it what he imagined for himself at this stage of his life? Perhaps not, and the most decorated player in English football history will touch upon that when he is asked whether he is seeking a way back into management.
“There’s a bit of unfinished business,” Giggs tells the audience. “I was obviously enjoying coaching Wales. We had a pretty successful time. And yeah, I loved it. So I don’t see why not.”
GO DEEPER
Who is the real Ryan Giggs?
It is complicated, though, bearing in mind all the unpleasantness and excruciating detail that came out during the 2022 trial in which he denied subjecting his former girlfriend, Kate Greville, to three years of psychological and, at times, physical abuse.
It also seems to be understood why there are no follow-up questions. To go any further might involve having to explain why he had to stand down from the Wales job, why we rarely see him on television these days, why he does not tend to do interviews and why, it seems, potential employers might have reservations about taking him on.
To go further might involve having to ask why Giggs, a history-maker with an Order of the British Empire for his services to football and 13 Premier League titles, keeps being left off the competition’s Hall of Fame.
Giggs had been charged with controlling and coercive behaviour, headbutting Greville, 10 years his junior, and assaulting her younger sister, Emma. The jury at Manchester Crown Court could not reach a verdict. Then, shortly before the retrial was due to begin last year, Greville wrote to the court to say she no longer wanted to give evidence because she felt “worn down” and “violated” by the judicial process.
Ryan Giggs leaves Manchester Crown Court in August 2023 after the jury in his trial failed to reach a verdict (Cameron Smith/Getty Images)
The judge issued not-guilty verdicts on all the alleged offences. “The position is, he has always been innocent of these charges,” Chris Daw KC, representing Giggs, told the court. “Going forward, he now looks to rebuild his life and career as an innocent man.”
And so, there are around 240 people in Radlett — just a few miles from Arsenal’s training ground — paying between £90 and £250 ($113 and $314) to see him, with the more expensive packages involving a meet-and-greet and a professionally taken photograph.
Giggs looks tanned, relaxed, trim — a regular, apparently, at Barry’s Bootcamp gym in Manchester — and his Salfordian accent seems more pronounced in a room mostly filled by southerners.
It is a friendly audience and, right from the start, Giggs reminds everyone that he has always been a crowd-pleaser. “The bar’s been open, has it?” is his opening line, as the most boisterous members of the audience have to be shushed down.
He talks about watching United’s FA Cup defeat of Liverpool at his mother’s house (“she hates Scousers more than anyone”) and why he believes Erik ten Hag should keep his job as manager. United, he says, have suffered from “crap” recruitment in the post-Ferguson years and he hopes INEOS will put that right.
The compere asks him to wish happy birthday to a United fan called Nina, who is in the audience with a group of friends. It is her 61st birthday and Giggs turns the charm on full beam. “I met her earlier,” he says. “She doesn’t look it.”
But he is here to talk about his own United career, for the most part, and the evening opens with a video montage reminding the audience why they cherished him so much as a player.
The footage shows Giggs, at 17, making his United debut in a shirt that seems a size or two too big for him. In between the mazy runs and spontaneous skills, there is a clip of Best himself, analysing the teenager. “One day,” he says, “they might say I was another Ryan Giggs.”
The video moves on to the goal at Villa Park — April 14, 1999 — that would be voted in 2004 as the greatest FA Cup moment of all time. Vieira gives the ball away and the audience start cheering. They know what is coming. So does the compere, Alan Keegan, usually United’s matchday announcer.
“Oh, this is the one,” says Keegan. “Keep going, keep going, keep going Ryan… wow! That is extraordinary.”
Ryan Giggs fires in his famous goal against Arsenal in 1999 (Shaun Botterill /Allsport
It would end up being voted the greatest goal in 50 years of the BBC’s Match of the Day. Giggs was 25 at the time and, incredibly, still had another 16 years ahead of him in United’s team.
“I left the ground on crutches,” says Giggs, whose Achilles had been damaged after a tackle by Dixon. “I thought my season was over. As I was getting on the bus, a reporter asked me: ‘Was that the greatest goal you ever scored?’.”
His answer, he explains, was that, no, he didn’t think it was. But he hadn’t seen it back at that point. “In my head, I was 30 yards out and I had beaten only a couple of players. It wasn’t until I got home, watching it on the news, that I realised I was that far out and that I’d beaten that many players.”
He leaves Radlett around 11pm and, by the following afternoon, he has made his way 190 miles north to watch Salford City take on Sutton United in League Two.
Giggs is the co-owner of Salford alongside Scholes, Gary and Phil Neville, Nicky Butt and David Beckham. It is the fourth tier of English football and, at times, there have been some unexpected challenges for the group of ex-United players known as the Class of ’92.
“It’s different, especially when you have been in football at the top level,” says Giggs. “When we first took over, the manager had booked a two-week holiday in pre-season. ‘I book my family holiday at the same time every year’. But it’s your job, isn’t it? ‘I’m not changing it’. So yeah, we had a few things we had to get our heads around.”
Sutton begin the day in the relegation zone, dangerously close to falling out of the EFL. It is 87th versus 91st at the start of play, in a ladder of 92 clubs. And it is a bad day for Salford, in a game of blood and thunder, a fair bit of thud and blunder, and not a great amount of skill. Salford lose 2-1 and the home fans in a crowd of 2,983 go home disappointed.
Overall, though, it has been a story of near-unremitting success, involving four promotions, since the Class of ’92 took control of Salford 10 years ago, backed by the wealth of Singaporean billionaire Peter Lim.
“We love it,” Giggs tells the audience in Radlett. “Myself, Gary, Nicky, Scholesy. Phil and Becks are in America so don’t get to a lot of games. But the rest of the lads do. Roy Keane loves coming to home games. Steve Bruce comes because his son, Alex, is now assistant manager. So there’s a real United connection.”
Ryan Giggs takes his seat at Salford City, where he is director of football (Ben Roberts Photo/Getty Images)
The Athletic is there, too, though it is difficult not to get the feeling our presence is less welcome. Salford get in touch two days before the game to ask what we want to write about, which doesn’t usually happen. Giggs, we are told, is not expected to be there.
In the end, they approve our accreditation request. The only logical explanation, however, is that there are people at the club who are not keen on Giggs being the subject of interest.
A few weeks back, it was revealed that Giggs had been working for Salford all season as director of football. As well as going to all the home games, it means he is there for the majority of their away fixtures, too. So he has plenty to keep him busy, even if it is noticeable that his appointment was not announced at the time.
Nor is he afraid to make the hard calls, judging by the story Robbie Savage, director of football at non-League Macclesfield Town, told recently about Giggs ringing him in February “to warn me that Salford City were poaching my manager”.
Savage, who was once in United’s youth system with Giggs, recalled the conversation in his column for the Daily Mirror newspaper. “I thought Giggsy was calling to arrange a game of padel tennis, which we play occasionally, but this time he opened the conversation with, ‘You’re not going to like this’.
“He said Salford wanted to speak to Alex Bruce, who had guided Macclesfield into the Northern Premier League play-off places and quarter-finals of the FA Trophy, two steps from Wembley. Laughing, but disappointed, I replied, ‘First you take my place in the 1992 FA Youth Cup final team and now you’re taking my manager?’.”
Is Giggs actively applying for managerial jobs of his own? His brief spell as United’s caretaker manager in 2014 was, he says, the proudest he has ever felt. It also left him convinced he could do the job full-time. But it is far from straightforward when, unfortunately for Giggs, it is also clear that prospective employers would have to consider the damage to his reputation.
Ryan Giggs called his spell in caretaker charge of United his proudest moment (Andrew Yates/AFP via Getty Images)
“George Best has a statue outside Old Trafford and his charge sheet off the pitch is much worse than Ryan’s,” says the writer and author Frank Worrall. “So if that’s the yardstick, Giggs should have one, too. Not that he ever will. Times and attitudes have changed. Best wouldn’t get one now, either — protest groups wouldn’t stand for it.”
In 2010, Worrall brought out a biography, Giggsy, that eulogised in the main about a player he regarded as “a personable guy away from the pitch and a genius on it”.
Worrall can vividly remember that epic semi-final against Arsenal when Keane was sent off, Peter Schmeichel saved Dennis Bergkamp’s 90th-minute penalty and Giggs’ wonder goal pushed United closer towards what was, back then, an unprecedented treble.
“The utter audacity of it,” says Worrall. “The interception, the dazzling dribble past bemused defenders, the hammer shot beyond David Seaman. The shirt off, twirling it in the air. The chest hair, the congratulatory hugs. The whole bloody miracle of a snatched glory in the face of 10-men adversity.”
Giggs, he adds, “is, and always will be, a Manchester United legend… a footballing legend”.
Over the years, however, Worrall has had to get used to the idea that “the Bobby Charlton-style, clean-as-a-whistle family man” was not the person he thought him to be. And that can be conflicting — “Sir Bobby he certainly ain’t” — when Worrall counts Giggs in his top five United players from the 1970s onwards.
“Ryan contributed as much to United as anyone ever,” he says. “Thirty-four trophies from 1991 to 2013, the most appearances (963), the first and last of the Class of ’92 to play for the club and United’s most decorated player… a winger-turned-midfielder genius who tore the opposition apart, again and again.”
Against that kind of backdrop, there are many people in football who think it is wrong, and certainly inconsistent, that the Premier League has excluded Giggs from the latest shortlist of possible Hall of Famers.
Yes, there are other stories about Giggs’ private life that will be held against him. And, yes, it only needs a cursory look through the internet to understand, for example, why his relationship with his younger brother, Rhodri, has suffered badly.
Yet the Premier League inducted Tony Adams into its Hall of Fame last year, even though the former Arsenal captain had previously served a prison sentence for drink-driving.
John Terry, the former Chelsea captain, is one of the 15 players on this year’s shortlist, despite being banned for four matches and fined £220,000 by a Football Association commission that decided he had racially abused Anton Ferdinand, then of Queens Park Rangers.
Perhaps the best way of summing it up is that Giggs may just have to accept that he is always going to polarise opinion but that, in football terms alone, his achievements are as solid as the foundations of Old Trafford itself.
“You cannot separate genius from Ryan Giggs,” Ferguson said after the 1999 semi-final against Arsenal that, 20 years later, was ranked No 38 in The Times’ 50 Greatest Football Matches.
That genius has been tarnished over recent years. In football, however, where there is genius, there will also be adoration. And, however complicated it can be in the rest of his life, Giggs will always be guaranteed that in a room filled with United fans.
(Top photos: Getty Images; design: Eamonn Dalton)
One of the most iconic catches in NFL history — a play that would change Odell Beckham Jr.’s life — started with a misunderstanding and a poor route. Eli Manning is quick to remind his former New York Giants receiver of both whenever the play comes up.
And it always does. It’s one of the more indelible moments in the NFL over the last decade.
“It was kind of like bad, bad, bad … unbelievable. Or, oh, no, no, no … great job,” Manning said. “We laugh more about that. I recognize how good it was and eventually get to (acknowledging) that point, but with your pals, it’s always good to give them a little heat about what it could have been. It could have been a walk-in: double move, beat him by 5 yards, nice easy catch and cruise in for an easy touchdown.
“But that’s not the Odell way.”
For weeks during the 2014 season, Giants players and coaches learned about the “Odell way.” They watched a precocious rookie in practice snatch balls out of the air with a swipe of his hand. They saw him throw, punt and kick field goals, effortlessly launching footballs to improbable depths. They witnessed him nonchalantly perform eye-popping, athletic feats as if he had been doing them all of his life. His former Giants teammate, inside linebacker Jameel McClain, remembers watching Beckham and thinking, “Man, God really did a number on him.”
On Nov. 23, 2014, a MetLife Stadium crowd of more than 80,000 and a prime-time NBC television audience learned what the Giants already knew: Beckham was capable of the extraordinary. His one-handed — check that, three-fingered — 43-yard touchdown catch against the Dallas Cowboys on a ball that sailed behind his head electrified the world and transformed Beckham from an exciting, talented rookie into a sports phenom.
“During the moment, I didn’t know the magnitude of what actually happened,” Beckham said. “I only know the aftermath. It’s been my life ever since.”
The Catch That Broke the Internet.
Odell Beckham Jr. catches a one-handed touchdown and it is arguably one of the most iconic catches in NFL history. (via @nflthrowback)pic.twitter.com/SAchXm5uCv
— NBC Sports (@NBCSports) December 22, 2019
Beckham says that with a tone of acceptance, but also a tinge of regret. He appreciates the fame and fortune that the catch helped generate. He also resents that the catch is used to minimize the other accomplishments of his career. In many ways, Beckham and his most celebrated play have a love-hate relationship.
He’s 32 now, no longer a phenom but a veteran of 10 NFL seasons. The Miami Dolphins are his fifth team. He is closing in on 600 career catches, 8,000 receiving yards and 60 touchdowns. He might have been the MVP of the Los Angeles Rams’ Super Bowl LVI victory over the Cincinnati Bengals in February 2022 had his left knee not given out, forcing him to miss the rest of the game and the entire next season, altering his football future.
Yet, the one play that has largely defined his career happened exactly 10 years ago Saturday. Beckham’s catch while being interfered with by Cowboys cornerback Brandon Carr adorns countless highlight reels and is commemorated on T-shirts and posters on the walls of sports bars and man caves. It inspired scores of imposters and flashy one-handed catches to come.
A decade later, his connection with Manning is typically the yardstick for which all other acrobatic one-handed catches, such as the one Garrett Wilson of the New York Jets made late last month, are measured.
CATCH OF THE YEAR CANDIDATE FROM GARRETT WILSON
@nyjets pic.twitter.com/A3efxJMIiF
— The Athletic (@TheAthletic) November 1, 2024
“There’s always something about the original, and it was the first time I had seen something like that,” said Cris Collinsworth, the longtime NFL receiver who was in the NBC booth providing color commentary with Al Michaels for the Giants-Cowboys game. “Today, between the gloves, the balls aren’t as slick and these guys are freakier athletes. These guys are 6-4, 225 pounds, and they run 4.3 (seconds in the 40-yard dash). It’s just insane what they are able to do, so I try not to get so freaked out about it anymore.
“But yeah, when it happened, I thought (Beckham’s catch) was the best thing that I’d ever seen.”
It’s stood the test of time, too.
Beckham remembers it vividly. He was playing for LSU against Auburn in 2013 when he soared above the far sideline and tried to make a one-handed snag. He couldn’t haul it in, but he vowed that he’d make that play the next time the opportunity arose.
His inspiration came from LSU teammate Jarvis Landry. The two would spend hours outside their college dorm, throwing footballs to each other and practicing one-handed catches.
“That’s really how it came about,” Beckham said. “It really was a lot of Jarvis’ doing as far as the way he took me being a kid who was going to be good to understanding that I want to be a legend. I want to be remembered forever.”
The 12th pick of the 2014 NFL Draft, Beckham didn’t get his professional career off to a great start. A hamstring injury sidelined him for much of training camp and the first four games of the regular season.
“He had a rocky start, and that New York media wasn’t friendly to him,” McClain said. “I remember having so many different conversations with him, like, ‘All of this is going to pass by, and the time that the world sees who you are is going to come.’”
In his regular-season debut, Beckham caught the game-winning touchdown pass against the Atlanta Falcons. Two weeks later, he had two touchdowns against the Cowboys. In the three games after that, he totaled 21 catches for 357 yards.
Beckham already had caught a 3-yard touchdown pass from Manning midway through the first quarter in the rematch against the Cowboys in Week 12 on “Sunday Night Football.” The Giants had designs on more when they had a first down on the Cowboys’ 43-yard line. It was the area of the field where Giants offensive coordinator Ben McAdoo liked to take deep shots, and the offense had been working extensively on different throws off bootlegs. One, in particular, called for Beckham to make an out-and-up move down the sideline.
As the first quarter ended, the coaches and Manning discussed the merits of a deep shot. Giants head coach Tom Coughlin wasn’t sure it was the best time to try it. Beckham pleaded with Coughlin to keep the call.
“We were trying to figure out what shot to take, and that was one of the shots on the menu,” McAdoo said. “Good thing we didn’t talk ourselves out of that one.”
As Beckham jogged back on the field, it was either Coughlin or Manning who said, “Don’t rush the route.” It, however, was the last three of those words that stuck in Beckham’s head as he lined up outside and to Manning’s right: rush the route.
“We wanted to get a little comeback and go, and we were a little worried if we just did a straight fake and rollout, it would bring the safety over. So, we just kind of did a half roll,” Manning recalled. “I want to take my eyes to the middle safety, hold him a little bit and have a backside post. Pretend that you’re looking at that and then gear up, and you’re throwing the comeback and go no matter what. If we’re getting high (safety), it should be one-on-one. We got the look that we wanted.”
Beckham, indeed, rushed the route and didn’t sell the comeback. Carr wasn’t fooled, either. He was stride-for-stride with Beckham tracking the flight of Manning’s pass.
“Definitely not one of my best routes,” Beckham said. “He tried to squeeze me to the sideline, and I kind of did a basketball move. If somebody is posting you up, you pull the chair. I just kind of pulled the chair. The rest was history.”
Beckham slipped inside Carr, who grabbed the front of the receiver’s jersey and was immediately flagged. Beckham then elevated, reached his right arm well behind his head and secured the ball with three fingers before tumbling into the end zone.
“You can’t see where the ball is, and to still get your hands and fingers on it and somehow be strong enough in your fingers to hold onto that thing and pull it in while falling backward?” Manning said. “It doesn’t quite make sense. One of the all-time great catches.”
Odell Beckham Jr. didn’t run the route the way Eli Manning intended him to, but it created an iconic moment. (Elsa / Getty Images)
In three decades as a broadcaster, Collinsworth remembers two instances where he had to pause because he was stunned by what he witnessed. There was the interception by New England Patriots cornerback Malcolm Butler at the goal line in the final seconds of Super Bowl XLIX, and there was the Beckham catch.
When he spoke about the latter, he told the television audience, “That may be the greatest catch I’ve ever seen in my life.”
To which Michaels replied, “It’s in the conversation.”
“It was just special,” Collinsworth told The Athletic. “There’s some things that the more you slow it down, the better it gets. I thought that was one of those. It was like, ‘Oh, he did that?’ And then he got his feet in and he only got three fingers on it. It just kept adding up. It’s great to have those moments.
“When I was a kid, I can remember things that inspired me to want to play football or sports in general. I’m glad it happened. I’m glad there are Odell Beckhams in the world who can do things that other mere mortals can’t.”
McAdoo still recalls the look of astonishment on the face of the normally stoic Manning as he came to the sideline with the crowd buzzing after the catch. It never subsided throughout a game Dallas won 31-28.
“It was electric,” McAdoo said. “I’ve been a part of some big games, whether it was the Super Bowl, whether it was Aaron (Rodgers) and Brett (Favre) playing for the first time in the Metrodome. The buzz in the stadium after that happened lasted the whole game. It’s going to be hard to beat that catch.”
In many ways, the catch was buoyed by the perfect storm. It was a prime-time Sunday game, and NBC had a multitude of camera angles to do it justice. The game featured two big market teams with deep fan bases.
Beckham’s catch generated oohs and aahs from the crowd as it was shown across the stadium. The gasps kept coming as fans turned to their phones to keep watching clips of the reception.
“We’ve never had a play, I think in sports history, that went as viral,” said former Giants guard Geoff Schwartz, one of the first players to greet Beckham in the end zone. “That was sort of the start of social media being such an important part of our lives. Odell went from a first-round pick to a celebrity overnight.”
Said McClain: “That was one of those defining moments where it was like, ‘OK, world, welcome your new star.’”
Baltimore Ravens top receiver Zay Flowers was 14 when Beckham made the grab. Growing up in South Florida, Flowers saw a replay of the catch on his phone and went around showing his friends the highlight.
“I thought it was fake,” Flowers said. “I remember watching it over and over for like two weeks straight.”
Flowers and Beckham were teammates last year in Baltimore, and Flowers said the play briefly came up in conversation. When it did, Beckham told his teammate that the catch “changed his life.”
Zay Flowers’ locker is right next to Odell Beckham Jr.’s in the Ravens locker room. 😈 pic.twitter.com/9DeM8OvQBi
— Ryan Mink (@ryanmink) September 7, 2023
Beckham immediately achieved almost mythical status in New York, his every move garnering attention and headlines.
“It was like Bon Jovi coming back to the Meadowlands,” McAdoo said. “There was always a vibe about him and he was a performer.”
For Beckham, the true impact of his catch resonated when he’d see young athletes practicing one-handed grabs at schools and at football camps. He has traveled extensively overseas and been asked about the catch in Sweden, Norway and the Netherlands.
He’s flattered that it has inspired others, and he understands that his immense popularity around the globe — his 17.5 million Instagram followers were the most of any NFL player as of earlier this year — traces back to that November 2014 night, when he corralled a ball that seemed destined for out of bounds.
“In the most humble way, I can go almost anywhere in the world and people, for the most part, kind of remember that moment,” Beckham said. “Even people who don’t know football know me, which is a blessing. But, it’s honestly something that I never really foresaw. It came with that moment.”
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The way Beckham sees it, Michael Jordan had his crossover and game-winning shot against the Utah Jazz in Game 6 of the 1998 NBA Finals. LeBron James had his chase-down block against the Golden State Warriors in Game 7 of the 2016 NBA Finals.
He has the one-handed catch against the Cowboys.
“People want to amount my entire career to just one catch, but there’s so many other plays that happened and things that I did, where it’s just hard to be like, ‘Yeah, he only had one catch,’” Beckham said. “I’ve caught the ball multiple times with one hand. Everything in life is about timing, and it was pretty crazy timing. ‘Sunday Night Football.’ New York Giants, Dallas Cowboys. It’s something that I’d never trade for the world.
“Here I am today. It’s taught me the hardships, the good times, all of those things.”
(Illustration: Dan Goldfarb / The Athletic; photos: Al Bello / Getty Images)
LAS VEGAS – Scott Speed has nearly done it all when it comes to auto racing.
The Red Bull driver was one of the few American drivers to compete in Formula 1. He’s raced on ovals in NASCAR and won several championships in Rallycross.
Speed competed for Scuderia Toro Rosso 28 times between the 2006 and 2007 seasons. He was one of the last Americans to compete in F1 races before Alexander Rossi and Logan Sargeant.
At that time, the United States Grand Prix was a fixture on the Formula 1 schedule, and it wasn’t until 2022 when the Miami Grand Prix started and, last year, the Las Vegas Grand Prix.
Scott Speed (USA) during practice for the 2007 Grand Prix of Great Britain at Silverstone July 6, 2007. (GEPA pictures/Franz Pammer via USA Today Sports)
Since 2023, the U.S. has hosted three Formula 1 races as the sport’s popularity has skyrocketed.
“It’s out of control. It’s so, so different,” Speed told Fox News Digital Friday. “Honestly, it was kind of nicer because I’m a bit of a reserved person. So, after I came back to America after my Formula 1 career was over, it was quite nice actually that no one recognized me or knew me. I could kind of just like start over from scratch. I honestly really enjoyed the anonymity.
“Now, obviously, it’s cool because there’s so many of my fellow Americans and so many of my friends and family here now that know what Formula 1 is, and they’re like, ‘Oh my gosh, you did that?’ And that’s pretty special to be able to share with them. As a fan of motor racing in general, I’m so glad that, whether it was the Netflix show or a lot of factors, it’s grown here and that’s really cool.”
Speed didn’t have the success of Mario Andretti, but getting to drive at the pinnacle of open-wheel racing is a major win.
Competing against the likes of Fernando Alonso, Michael Schumacher and Felipe Massa is no easy task.
“Formula 1 is the pinnacle of motor racing, right? But there wasn’t really a path in America. So, it was kind of like an ambitious goal, and I was very fortunate to have an opportunity with the Red Bull America driver search to have that opportunity to move to Europe and to actually have a pathway from the Red Bull Junior Development program to actually get there.
Formula One driver Scott Speed (USA) during practice for the 2007 Grand Prix of France at Magny-Cours Motorway June 29, 2007. (GEPA pictures/ Mathias Kniepeiss via USA Today Sports)
MCLAREN’S ZAK BROWN TALKS MENTALITY IN TIGHT RACE FOR F1 CONSTRUCTORS’ CHAMPIONSHIP
“My biggest memories are just how special it was to be able to maximize those opportunities and actually get there.”
Speed said one of the most difficult parts of Formula 1 was to go from winning a lot or competing in the front in the feeder series to racing hard against the best of the best. And not always finding victory lane or the podium was a “difficult thing to get used to.”
“Formula 1 is super special, and the cars are unbelievably fast. I think the most special, I mean, everybody will remember the first time they pull out of a garage in a Formula 1 car. And, for me, that was Barcelona in a V-10. So, I was also lucky to have the memory of the engines and they sounded amazing. Many great memories.”
Speed raced in NASCAR for several years before getting another opportunity to compete in another different kind of racing – Rallycross, which takes place on a closed mixed-surface circuit.
Scott Speed drives the No. 41 Volkswagen Andretti Rallycross Beetle during the Red Bull Global Rallycross race at Daytona International Speedway June 21, 2015, in Daytona Beach, Fla. (Brian Cleary/Getty Images)
The Red Bull athlete won three consecutive Global Rallycross championships from 2015 to 2017 and the Americas Rallycross championship in 2018. He told Fox News Digital he wanted to give himself a challenge and race in a series outside his comfort zone.
“There’s so many options that would have been a lot easier and maybe more of a natural fit,” he said. “I really wanted to challenge myself and do something different.
“It’s probably the decision I’m most happy about because it led me down a path of exploration and learning different ways to drive a vehicle. And I fell in love with that aspect of motor racing – away from being good at driving one type of car one way. I fell in love with, ‘Oh, this car, I need to, as a driver, do a lot of different things to optimize the vehicle.’ And I fell in love with that.
“With Rallycross after stock car racing, it was another evolution of that like, ‘OK, this requires something else,’ and I’ve just been always in love and fascinated with what it takes to try to maximize the physics of the vehicles. I’ve been lucky to have those opportunities to be able to go from all these different disciplines.”
Speed also offered advice to young drivers looking to break into the sport.
“Don’t quit,” he said. “I really believe you can have everything you want in life if you want it bad enough. It always comes down to being willing to pay the price that it costs and if you’re willing to put in the energy and time that it needs to do something. Anything’s possible.
Former NASCAR Cup Series driver Scott Speed during the Championship Race at Phoenix Raceway in Avondale, Ariz., Nov. 5, 2023. (Mark J. Rebilas/USA Today Sports)
“I think that the most important thing is you love what you do. I was very lucky to find at a very young age that I loved racing, and I was able to pursue that and turn that into a career. But I think the love of racing is the bedrock of that because the effort and energy it takes to be successful in something as difficult as motor racing requires a lot of energy. And if you don’t love what you’re doing, you’re not going to be willing to pay that price that it takes.”
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CITY SECTION
SEMIFINALS
OPEN DIVISION
Narbonne 27, Birmingham 7
San Pedro 40, Carson 34 (OT)
DIVISION I
Palisades 63, Eagle Rock 45
King/Drew 35, Kennedy 23
DIVISION II
South Gate 62, Arleta 43
Chatsworth 21, Sylmar 20
DIVISION III
Panorama 22, Los Angeles 6
Van Nuys 17, Fulton 12
SOUTHERN SECTION
FRIDAY’S RESULTS
SEMIFINALS
DIVISION 1
Mater Dei 36, Corona Centennial 7
St. John Bosco 20, Orange Lutheran 17
DIVISION 2
Murrieta Valley 55, Oaks Christian 52 (OT)
Newbury Park 20, Yorba Linda 14
DIVISION 3
Simi Valley 28, Loyola 25
Edison 42, Vista Murrieta 14
DIVISION 4
St. Bonaventure 20, Apple Valley 13
Oxnard Pacifica 28, Thousand Oaks 16
DIVISION 5
La Serna 34, Summit 22
Palos Verdes 27, Foothill 24
DIVISION 6
Murrieta Mesa 31, St. Francis 28
Glendora 25, Dana Hills 21
DIVISION 7
Rio Hondo Prep 42, West Torrance 21
Warren 41, Yucaipa 17
DIVISION 8
Serrano 10, Lancaster 0
St. Pius X-St. Matthias 21, Salesian 14
DIVISION 9
Highland 27, Quartz Hill 14
Long Beach Wilson 32, Great Oak 13
DIVISION 10
St. Anthony 17, Garden Grove Pacifica 14
Silverado 58, South Pasadena 7
DIVISION 11
Portola 30, Baldwin Park 14
El Rancho 28, San Gorgonio 21
DIVISION 12
Palmdale 33, Mary Star of the Sea 27
Carter 70, Hacienda Heights Wilson 48
DIVISION 13
Gahr 28, Anaheim 12
Pasadena 37, Lynwood 0
DIVISION 14
San Gabriel 44, Duarte 22
Pioneer 49, Ganesha 28
8 MAN
DIVISION 1
Finals
California School for the Deaf 44, Flintridge Prep 42
DIVISION 2
Semifinals
Lancaster Baptist 38, Thacher 18
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