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What Do We Really Need Right Now?
Ted Lasso or the Olympics? No spoilers!
The second season of the Netflix hit Ted Lasso couldn’t have come at a better time. As the Olympics gear up, we need every feel-good sports story possible. Otherwise, the only sporty news on the radar would involve doping scandals, runaway budgets, and pandemic scares. Obviously, I’m not what you call a sportsball person, but I’ve watched both the games and Ted Lasso. Not surprisingly, I’ve ended up asking myself the question that’s been on everyone’s op ed pages — why have the Olympic Games at all?
The connection between these two things wasn’t lost on the U.S. women’s soccer team. When they announced the roster for the Tokyo games in June, they did so with Jason Sudeikis and Brendan Hunt in character as the bumble-headed but lovable Lasso and his fact-checking sidekick, Coach Beard. (Does he have a first name?)
We, not just we as a nation but we as in the entire world, have just survived a dumpster fire of a year. The unflappable optimism of Coach Ted Lasso, a man utterly unprepared for the storm he’s just…