A great, fictional NASCAR driver once began his storied on-screen career with one declaration: "I want to go fast."
Consider Dolphins running back Matt Breida to be kindred spirits with Ricky Bobby, the driver played by Will Ferrell who bulled his way to the top of the sport with reckless abandon in 2006's Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby.
Breida told reporters Wednesday he recently purchased a Lamborghini with the same simple thought process that pushed Bobby from pit crew man to Dennit Racing's superstar driver.
"I like going fast," Breida said, via the Miami Herald's Armando Salguero. "I like running fast."
Breida is indeed fast on the football field, and he's not shy about just how quick he really is. One NFL defender -- Raiders safety Damarious Randall -- might be able to tell you what it feels like to experience the brush of wind that accompanies Breida as he blows by you.
When asked Wednesday who the fastest player in the NFL is, Breida replied: "Oh, man, you guys know the answer to that question," per the Palm Beach Post's Hal Habib.
It is Breida, who pointed to the Next Gen Stats to back up his claim.
"Nobody has been able to beat me," Breida said, via ESPN's Cameron Wolfe.
The numbers support Breida's confident declaration. According to Next Gen Stats, only one ball carrier reached 22.3 mph in 2019. It was Breida, who topped out at exactly 22.3 mph on the above touchdown run, an 83-yard scamper that was such a home run of a play, that same gust of wind coming from Breida could almost be felt from the upper reaches of the Levi's Stadium press box.
That was the only time Breida landed near the top of the ball-carrying speed charts last season, though three of his former 49ers teammates also landed in the 21 mph-or-better group: Raheem Mostert, Tevin Coleman and Deebo Samuel (twice). Going back to 2016, Breida's run was the eighth-fastest by a ballcarrier in the entire NFL.
The leader -- you guessed it -- is Chiefs burner Tyreek Hill, who remains the only ballcarrier to break 23 mph (23.24), which he did on a 105-yard kick return touchdown in 2016.
As Bobby said many times in the comedic motion picture, "if you ain't first, you're last."
