From Litigating Malpractice to Interviewing Lando Norris: How Mark Schofield Became an F1 and NFL Writer

How Mark Discovered Racing and Started His Career

What was the moment you discovered racing?

I grew up just outside Boston. My grandfather, who fought in World War II, comes home, gets a job, buys a house, and gets Red Sox season tickets in 1946. Growing up, Boston team sports was all I knew.

So, I go to college in 1995, and you get more access to ESPN, get access to the internet, and learn about this sport called Formula 1 and a team called Benetton. I had never watched F1 on TV, so watching it as a freshman in college blew my mind because it made no sense. It's like you’re telling me a sweatshirt company is a team in a sport. It made no sense to me whatsoever.

Now, admittedly, because it was easier to watch here in the States, I became more of a NASCAR fan. I watched Dale [Earnhardt] Sr., [Jeff] Gordon—all those guys. Then when Lewis [Hamilton] came around, that's what got me back into F1.

But I've said this before, if they're keeping score [in something], if they're keeping time, if they're judging it, if they're determining a winner in some way, I'll watch it. You name any sport, and I've probably watched or written about it.

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Why did you decide to start writing, and how did you end up covering Formula 1? 

I was a trial attorney doing civil medical malpractice defense work. I practiced law for 10 years, took two different bar exams, and was licensed in D.C., Maryland, and Virginia. But I just realized that the more I did it, the more I wasn't the best version of myself. I wasn't a good dad, I wasn't a good husband, or a good partner. I was consumed by it.

My wife and I met in law school. She's a practicing attorney. She's actually very good at it. There was this night when she was pregnant with Simone, our daughter, our second, and we had Owen, who was at that point, like, maybe a year old, maybe two. You have this window when the kids are in daycare where you pick them up, you have an hour to do dinner, play with them, get them bathed, get them to bed, right? And so, she's pregnant on the floor, playing with Owen. I'm sitting on my couch, staring at my phone, worried about work. What really mattered in my life was two feet behind my phone, and as I was sitting there, I realized this can't be the best for me. It's certainly not the best for my family.

So, I stepped away from practicing law and figured I would find something else to do. I got a going-away package from the firm I was at, so I had some time, and I started writing about sports, just to pass time.

I started this little website called Inside The Pylon, where we covered the NFL. Since I played quarterback, I knew how to break plays down and how to talk about them. So, you see a touchdown, I can tell you why it happened. I can tell you the coverages, the routes, and all that stuff. Before I knew it, I was in The Washington Post. I was writing for Bleacher Report, I was writing for USA Today, and it just kind of took off from there.

Then four years ago, SB Nation needed somebody to write about the NFL, full-time. Lots of people applied, I somehow got the job. My editor, Ricky O'Donnell, who I love, said pretty much from day one, “Look, whatever you want to write about, write about it.” Because I'm writing for SBNation.com. It's not for a specific team site or something.

So, I told him, “Look, I'm watching F1 anyway. Let me write about it.” And part of the impetus for that was, it's happening during the summer. Summer is usually the quietest season for any sports website because there's no NFL. So, I was like, “Look, it's going on in the summer, let me do it.” And that just kind of took off, too.

I was doing it for a couple of months, and somebody that was doing PR work for F1 themselves reached out and said, “Would you ever want to talk to a driver?” A week later, I'm talking to Lando Norris one-on-one. That went well, so before I knew it, I'm chatting with Zak Brown. Oscar Piastri finishes second in Monaco in 2024. While he's on his cool-down lap, they reached out and said, “Hey, do you want to chat with Oscar this week?”

Greg: How does your level of access in F1 compare to the NFL?

There are pros and cons to it. With NFL players, it's in the pre-draft process. I've gone to things like the Senior Bowl, the NFL Combine, and you get to interview players when they’re still prospects, like Justin Herbert and Gardner Minshew. But once they get to the NFL, a lot of it is either huge national reporters or local beat writers. So, somebody like me, that's kind of in the middle, there are opportunities here and there, but it's certainly nothing like the access I've had with F1.

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Why start out with your own publication versus joining someone larger?

Mostly because it spun off of this site, a Red Sox message board called Sons of Sam Horn. The people that I started writing with, we were all people that were posting, yes, about the Red Sox a lot. Then in the fall, we would talk a lot about the [New England] Patriots.

And so the timing was just weird that right around the time I was looking for something else to do, a couple of other people I knew had this idea that, hey, since we spend so much time talking about the Patriots, why don't we start our own website? And for me, obviously—look, I went to liberal arts college, law school. I have no journalism background. I wasn't going to get hired by somebody without a body of work. So, it was a chance to write.

When I started it, I didn't think it was going to be a career. I didn't think it was going to be a job. I certainly didn't think I'd be where I am right now, where it's my full-time job, but that's just how it sort of turned out. I mean, I'm just lucky as hell that it broke this way. There's a beauty in this space where we are right now, both literally and figuratively, where if you have a phone, a camera, a laptop, you can start something, and you can take it wherever it goes. And so, part of it was just being lucky to catch it at this time.

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Mark’s Current Role

How would you describe your current role? 

I am a storyteller that wears many hats. What I try to do, particularly in the F1 space, is to tell the drivers' stories the best I can. Nobody wants to hear from me, they want to hear from the drivers. When I sit down with a driver one-on-one, they don't want to hear my questions, they want their answers.

Greg: How does that differ from creators who share their opinions instead?

This is kind of the role that I carved out. There are certainly people that give their opinions and their spins, and there's people that do that in the F1 space, and they're great. That's just not me. I've always been of the mind that, particularly in motorsport, these people are so talented and they legitimately put it all on the line. Their stories matter. How I feel about Driver X or Driver Y, sure, there will be times when I'll share that and write about it a little bit. For the most part, the drivers’ stories are the stories that matter.

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What does a standard day look like for you? 

It really varies. On a standard day where I'm home, I'm getting the kids out the door for school. Owen, my son, he's our oldest. He's a sophomore in high school, so he's catching the bus at 6:45 in the morning. My wife and I get him out the door. We also get Simone, who's in middle school, out the door.

If it’s in the middle of the NFL season, for the most part, then I'm probably watching video, watching All-22 [Film], breaking down plays, writing stories about that. If there's F1 going on at the same time, and if it's a race week, I'm pulling together, whether it's stories from the paddock, the team previews, things like that. Putting together stories on those. If I've got an interview or something, I'm preparing for that.

On most days I'm typically cranking out five, six stories a day. It really just depends. During a race week, like I've been living this week, you're up early, you're at the track early, you're working. For instance, it's Qualifying day here in Austin, and I got here at 7 a.m. when the doors open for the media center.

Some nights I'm here till eight, nine o'clock at night. Some nights if I've got something off-site to get to, it's a little earlier. Then I'll get back to the hotel and do some more work before bed, get up, and do it all over again.

It's like that most days. I mean, this is my fifth [F1] race on the ground and my third US Grand Prix here in Austin. I love every minute of it, and I want to soak it in as much as I can.

Greg: How does that experience compare to the NFL?

It's similar. You try to get there early and soak it all in from the press box, sidelines, locker room, and post-game press conference. But with the NFL, the weird thing is a lot of the stuff that I do, I don't need to be at the games.

Because with the All-22 footage that I get, if I'm going to break down why a quarterback is playing well or why a defense is playing well, it's easier to just use the film more than anything else.

Author’s note: Sometimes referred to as coaches’ film, All-22 is a special camera angle for NFL games showing all 22 players, the offense and defense, on the field at the same time, rather than just the players around the ball as seen on the broadcast.

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What are the most rewarding and most challenging parts of being an F1 and NFL writer?

Rewarding

That feeling that you've actually done it right, and it doesn't matter to me if it gets 100,000 page views or 5. If I've written something that I'm incredibly proud of, that's what matters. That's the most rewarding part.

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Challenging

You will always feel like you're lagging behind. Sitting here in the paddock, I will get done with a story, I'll then open my social media feeds, and I'll see people creating their own great stories, creating their own great content, and it makes it impossible to stop working. You feel like you always have to be working, because if you're not, somebody else is getting ahead.

Greg: How do you manage doing all this with being a father and husband?

Part of it is the fact that I get to do it at home. That's step one. I'm working from home, and so if it's a Tuesday and Owen's got a 3:30 baseball game with his high school JV team, I'm there. I'm not stuck in an office. I'm not confined to a 9-to-5 in an office in downtown D.C. I can be there if Simone has a dance recital on a Friday night. I think for me, that's a huge start, that's a huge benefit.

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What are the three qualities that have helped you succeed in this?

Quick-thinking

I do think that the background of being a lawyer, and being able to think quickly, write quickly, react quickly on radio shows, TV shows, things like that, things that I was doing in a courtroom or to prepare for trial, that certainly helped.

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Passionate

Whatever sport you're covering, you have to love it. There are sports that I don't write about because I just don't enjoy them as much. I may watch them as a fan, but basketball, it’s never really been my thing, and I feel like that would come out if I tried to write a story about a game. It just wouldn't be as good.

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Self-deprecating

There will be people that don't agree with what you write, don't agree with what you say, don't agree with what you create, and I've always used self-deprecation as a shield against that. There will be nobody harder on social media on me than myself. I will make more fun of myself on social media than people can, and in a way, it sort of disarms people.

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Mark’s Advice as a Sports Writer

If you could go back and give advice to your younger self, what would that be?

I remember when I was nearing the end of law school, and I had to get a signature recommendation from a professor to sit for a bar exam. I was graduating law school in 2002. So, it's post-9/11. The world's changed. My wife and I at the time, we didn't have jobs lined up. We were just going to take the bar exam and figure it out, and I was telling that to a professor, and I was like, “Yeah, we don't really have a life plan.” And she said, “You don't need one. You'll find a life plan.”

And so, I would go back and tell myself, listen to Professor Barnard. You don't need to have a life plan because what you thought was your life plan, practicing law, being a trial attorney, and all that, you're going to end up at the F1 United States Grand Prix talking to this guy Greg a couple of hours after Qualifying.

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What advice would you give to someone looking to be in your position as a writer?

You're not going to be able to cover it all. There are going to be times when you're going to feel overwhelmed with it all, but just remember why you wanted to start doing this in the first place. Remember what put you in a position where you wanted to write about something, where you wanted to write about the NFL or Formula 1 or whatever it is, and just don't lose that passion for the sport that put you on that path to begin with. That's what matters.

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Fun on the Job

What is the most memorable moment from your journalism career so far? 

I think the first time I was in an F1 race with credentials, it was Miami in 2024, and it was incredible. I had no idea, going in, what to expect, didn't know anybody really, and an hour after getting to the paddock for the first time on that Thursday, I'm sitting across from Nico Hülkenberg in the hospitality space, and I was like, “Wow, this is legitimate, like pinch-me stuff.” I've never really lost that. Here I am, this is my fifth time doing it. Again, you walk by Kimi Antonelli in the paddock or you sit across from Max Verstappen at his hospitality space, and it's like, this is pretty cool. It's pretty rare, not everybody gets to do this, and certainly not something that I'll ever take for granted.

Another one I'll mention is Army-Navy. That was legitimately a bucket list item for me just as a fan, but to be in the press box for that and to… That's another one where I got there super early, because I wanted to see the [Brigade of] Midshipmen and the Corps of Cadets come in. They do that like three hours before the game. So, I wanted to see it all. I wanted to be there and take it all in. That's a fascinating event, and it's a game that means so much more than just a game of football. So, seeing that in the press box was certainly something I'll never forget.

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What would be your dream piece of content to create right now?

As a Red Sox fan, I would love to have sat down with the members of that 2004 team that came back from three games down to beat the Yankees in the ALCS [American League Championship Series] to win the World Series.

My wife and I were at a bar for Game 4 of that World Series in 2004, and when it became clear in the sixth inning that we're going to win the World Series that night. I told my wife, “We gotta go home. I gotta be on the phone with my grandfather.” So, we were in our apartment in D.C., and I'm on the phone with my grandfather for the last out in ’04. So, if I had a chance to go back and talk to those guys in that moment, that's the one I'd want to do.

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