'Ted Lasso' has been more than a goldfish on American sports landscape
Jason Sudeikis in a scene from "Ted Lasso." Credit: Apple TV+
“Ted Lasso” is not real life, much as it would be nice if it were so.
But it has been fun to live in that world for three seasons, with the Apple TV+ show set to end its run on May 31.
It is sports’ version of “The West Wing,” which from 1999 to 2006 turned politics into a world of noble souls who make lofty speeches overwritten by Aaron Sorkin.
In “Ted Lasso,” the stakes are lower than the fate of the free world, although the English Premier League sometimes seems just as important.
But the vibe is similar, and the warm-and-cuddly dial frequently is turned to 11.
The show centers on an American football coach played by Jason Sudeikis who is put in charge of a team playing at the highest level of European soccer.
The premise is absurd, but Lasso / Sudeikis soon wears down both his fictional colleagues and the program’s viewers with relentless charm and guilelessness.
By Season 3, the treacle got so thick as to be slow going at times, but the show’s heart always was in the right place.
Much like “Friday Night Lights,” another show on the Mount Rushmore of 21st century sports series, "Ted Lasso" has given coaches and their players plenty to think about — and aspire to.
Both shows managed to seep into the consciousness of real-world performers, perhaps the ultimate sign of respect.
That was illustrated best after Game 5 of the Panthers-Bruins first-round NHL playoff series, in which Florida beat Boston, 4-3, in overtime.
Linus Ullmark, a 29-year-old Swede who is the Bruins’ star goaltender, said this about having to bounce back from the tough loss:
"It's all about having the mind of a goldfish."
Every “Ted Lasso” fan got that reference to the series’ most-quoted observation, in which Lasso tells a player that goldfish are the happiest creatures on earth.
Why? Because their memory lasts only 10 seconds.
ted lasso tells sam obisanya to be a goldfish scene clip pic.twitter.com/49lV2cTs0I
— ted lasso clips (@tedlassoclips) January 15, 2022
“Be a goldfish” quickly took its place among sports’ favorite aphorisms.
Ranking the best sports-themed shows is a minefield of asterisks and definitional complications.
“Friday Night Lights” is No. 1 in a thin field, but there have been some good ones since “The White Shadow,” starring Manhasset’s own Ken Howard, set the bar in the late 1970s.
“Coach,” starring Craig T. Nelson as a football coach nothing like Eric Taylor or Ted Lasso, comes to mind.
So do “Arli$$,” “Sports Night,” “Playmakers,” “Eastbound & Down,” “The League,” “Ballers,” “Survivor’s Remorse,” "Brockmire" and others.
“GLOW” was excellent, if one considers professional wrestling a sport.
Then there is the genre based around fictional sportswriters, including “The Odd Couple,” “The Slap Maxwell Story,” “Everybody Loves Raymond” and “My Boys.”
Now “Ted Lasso” is in the conversation, and even added another fictional sportswriter to the pantheon in the form of Trent Crimm, formerly of “The Independent” and now embedded with AFC Richmond and writing a book on the team.
Another charm of the series has been American viewers learning along with Ted some of the nuances of British soccer and wider-world culture.
Lasso is our guide into seemingly weird British-isms, and our representative for his own weird Americanisms. (He hates tea, among other things.)
The show scored its biggest real-life soccer cameo in last week’s episode, when Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola greets Lasso after a match and says this:
“Don’t worry about the wins or losses. Just help these guys be the best version of themselves on and off the pitch. This, at the end, is the most important thing."
Let’s hope it was the show poking some fun at itself by having Guardiola act like Lasso, because otherwise it was a step too far down the feel-good rabbit hole. Guardiola never would say or believe that stuff.
Remember, sports in our non-fictional world can be harsh.
Two days after promising to be a goldfish, Ullmark and the Bruins lost Game 6, 7-5. Two days after that, he was benched for Game 7 and the Bruins lost the series.
Ted Lasso would have known just what to say in the losing dressing room.
Neil Best first worked at Newsday in 1982, returned in 1985 after a detour to Alaska and has been here since, specializing in high schools, college basketball, the NFL and most recently sports media and business.
