‘Ted Lasso’ pays tribute to Grant Wahl in new episode

By Leah Asmelash, CNN

Longtime soccer journalist Grant Wahl played a significant role in shaping “Ted Lasso.” In the most recent episode, the show honored his impact.

At the end of episode four of Season 3, titled “Big Week,” the line “In memory of Grant Wahl” appears on the screen as the credits begin to roll. Earlier in the episode, Brendan Hunt, who plays Coach Beard, is seen holding Wahl’s book “The Beckham Experiment,” analyzing David Beckham’s move from Europe to Major League Soccer.

Wahl collapsed and died last year while covering the World Cup in Qatar, due to what was later revealed to be a ruptured aortic aneurysm.

Dr. Céline Gounder, Wahl’s widow, posted about the episode on Twitter, thanking the “Ted Lasso” team for the remembrance.

“This episode means so much to me and my family,” she wrote.

Hunt, also an executive producer for the show, said Wahl played a huge role in developing the character of Trent Crimm, a journalist who spends Season 3 shadowing the fictional AFC Richmond club for a book he’s writing.

Wahl covered the LA Galaxy, the team Beckham joined when he moved to the US, in a similar way — and they thought of his book immediately to use as an Easter egg in the show, Hunt said in a statement to CNN.

“We exchanged emails about his experience and he was extremely generous with his answers to our questions,” Hunt said.

“Grant’s death happened while we were in post-production, and it was pretty self-evident that we would commemorate him in some way; the episode where his book is shown seemed the most organic place for it …” he continued. “His death remains jarring and tragic. He will forever be missed.”

Wahl was a preeminent soccer journalist who spent years covering the sport in the US at a time when soccer was only on the periphery of most Americans’ consciousness.

“He was almost a missionary in that sense,” British football commentator Jon Champion previously told CNN. “He would travel around the globe, telling people to take American soccer seriously. If you ask any of the frontline European football journalists who their first port of call has been if they wanted a story in America, it would be Grant Wahl.”

Wahl was also an early fan of “Ted Lasso,” interviewing the cast for his podcast in 2020 and visiting Hunt in Richmond last year.

“Ted Lasso” has since become a hit for Apple TV+, winning multiple Emmy awards and becoming one of the top shows from the streamer. Just last month, the cast even met with President Joe Biden to discuss mental health.

The-CNN-Wire
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