Lessons From Lasso

"Doin' the right thing is never the wrong thing."

–Ted Lasso, Coach, AFC Richmond Greyhounds

The context of this quote is a player-led protest of the team's main sponsor, owned by an oil conglomerate that is causing devastation in parts of Nigeria, the homeland of several Greyhound players. Follow your conscience, even at your own personal cost.

I love Apple TV+'s show Ted Lasso. I've watched the first season a few times, and am thoroughly enjoying Season 2. The show recently received 20 Emmy nominations. I think one of the many reasons for this is that it is a good show about flawed people who nevertheless seek to love one another. It is a show about soccer (i.e., football), but more than that it is a show about a group of people who form a community where they actually care for one another. They fail each other, seek and grant forgiveness, and keep moving forward, together.

For example, Ted rejects a request by Manchester City striker Jamie Tartt to come back and play for AFC Richmond, even though the team needs a quality player like him to come score some goals. Sporting reasons alone don’t justify this rejection. Moral reasons do, given how Jamie treated people during his last stint at the club.

Yet later, when Coach Lasso reflects on Jamie’s situation, he reconsiders. He brings Jamie back because “not everybody had a good dad.” Don’t bring back a player primarily because he can help you win more matches, but do bring him back because he needs a caring and supportive community in place of a dad who is failing him. Nothing is more Ted Lasso-esque than this.

In a more recent episode, striker Jamie Tartt's dad comes to the dressing room after Richmond is soundly defeated by Manchester City. He criticizes his son, calls his team "a bunch of amateurs," and it ends up in a confrontation with Jamie punching his father. Another coach has to drag his dad out of the locker room. After this, former Richmond player and current assistant coach Roy Kent walks over to Jamie and embraces him. Jamie breaks down weeping. These two men had a lot of conflict, and to see that put aside in the name of basic human empathy and even love is another picture of our better angels that Ted Lasso paints so well.

In a time where anger dominates and compassion wanes; where we demand our “rights” but seem to neglect many of our responsibilities to others; where the louder and more outrageous you are, the more clicks, attention, and ad dollars you get; when many people have spent over a year in varying degrees of isolation—in a time like this; the need we have for one another has been made very clear. Ted Lasso speaks to our hearts in these and many other ways.

Human beings are social creatures. We flourish best in deeper relationships with others. We need each other, and to be part of a community that gives much to us, and that we can give back to as well. Ultimately, we need love, in its varied forms. This is essential to a good and satisfying human life.

Ted Lasso provides a picture of life together that we would do well to create in the real world. Mutual concern, support, forgiveness, and, ultimately, love. It's a great show. Its message is even greater.