Warning: DO NOT READ IF YOU HAVEN’T WATCHED EPISODE 4 OF TED LASSO SEASON 3.
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Welcome to our Ted Lasso Power Rankings! Each week of the 12-episode season, For The Win will chat about the latest episode to see who is thriving and who is straight up not having a good time in the Ted Lasso universe. Let’s dig into it.
“It ain’t no use to sit and wonder why, babe.”
Those were the Bob Dylan lyrics that fans heard during the end credits as the latest episode of Ted Lasso paid tribute to the late journalist Grant Wahl. It is a perfectly fitting way to memorialize Wahl, whose unexpected death in December shook the sports world.
Wahl died of an aortic aneurysm while covering the World Cup in Qatar.
Ted Lasso co-creator Brendan Hunt said he and the showrunners felt obligated to “carry on the train of salutes to his memory” during the new season.
❤️ thank you, @TedLasso. pic.twitter.com/7jlHZSVtJf
— Nicole Auerbach (@NicoleAuerbach) April 5, 2023
But it wasn’t actually just a tribute during the end credits. In fact, midway through the episode, there is actually an Easter egg that you may have missed if you weren’t watching closely.
Coach Beard was holding a copy of Wahl’s book. Here is how it looked:
Beyond his contributions to the game of soccer, Wahl was actually directly affiliated with this show. Hunt says that the writer’s room reached out to Wahl to ask about his book The Beckham Experiment.
They hoped to hear what it was like for Wahl to write a book while embedded within a team with a new superstar on the roster so that they could apply it to their characters Trent Crimm and Zava (via Rich Eisen Show):
“Grant Wahl came back with paragraphs of answers within two days. He was incredibly generous with his experiences and it was really, really great and pretty helpful. We have a little nod to him coming up in this next episode. This was when he was still with us. We did not know what was going to come to pass.”
Hunt and Jason Sudeikis also appeared on Wahl’s podcast; it was the second-most downloaded episode he ever had.
Wahl later visited the Ted Lasso set in England and wrote about the experience on his Substack.
“The show brought a lightness that I didn’t realize how much I needed. It was a little like the effect the show itself had on me when I started watching during the pandemic.”
The show continues to bring light to Wahl’s loved ones. Wahl’s wife, Dr. Céline Gounder, tweeted that the tributes in this episode “means so much” to her and her family.
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