Theodore "Ted" Lasso is the main character with the titular name featured in the Apple TV+ show, Ted Lasso, father of Henry Lasso, best friend of Coach Beard, mentor of Nathan Shelley, and a good friend of Leslie Higgins, Keeley Jones, Roy Kent, and Rebecca Welton. He is also an American coach plucked from an obscure, college-level American football team in Kansas to coach and manage England's Association Football Club Richmond in the Premier League.
His main goals for the clubs and teams he coaches fall within the ambitions of the somewhat controversial "Ted Lasso Way". He primarily seeks to help the players grow both on and off the pitch, and aims to inspire them to grow as people.
Coach Ted Lasso was leading the Division II Wichita State Shockers to their first ever National title in American football. The victory for the team lead to Ted being approached by Rebecca Welton to be head coach for struggling Premier League UK football team, AFC Richmond. One of the reasons why Rebecca wants Ted to be the manager of Richmond is because she saw a viral video of him celebrating victory by dancing in the middle of locker room surrounded by the Shockers football players who are encouraging him and being happy for winning the title. The other reason, which is more nefarious, is she wants the club to fail to punish her lecherous ex-husband Rupert Mannion
History[]
Coming to England[]
During their flight to London, Ted asks whether they are nuts leaving the USA and move to the UK, which Beard lightly say "Yeah. This is nuts."
Season 3 promotional image of Ted Lasso
When they arrive at Nelson Road Stadium, Beard explains the history of British football but Ted gets distracted by the football field's grass. As Ted touches the grass and say that the grass feel different, Beard asks if it’s a metaphor, to which Ted say yes.
Their conversation is cut short when Nathan Shelley yells at them to keep off the grass. However, once he finds out that the two Americans are the new manager and coach, he immediately takes them to see Rebecca and Leslie Higgins in her office.
Rebecca takes Ted to a tour around the stadium area and shoves him to a press conference. Ted is overwhelmed by the questions from the journalists and reporters such as Trent Crimm, Marcus, and Lloyd who disapprove with the hiring of American coaches who don't know anything about UK Football. It is apparent that he is unaware of the rules of football in the UK, such as the offside rule and terminology such as "into touch" rather than "out of bounds".
Rebecca then assures everyone that everything is going to change with the way things everyone does things, and that thing is the "Lasso Way".
The Ted Lasso Way[]
Ted and Beard watches the team at the pitch to get to know more about the players such as Jamie Tartt, Sam Obisanya, Isaac McAdoo, and Colin Hughes. Beard explains that Sam is from Nigeria, which surprises Ted because apparently the players are from all around the world. Beard also explains that Colin is from Wales, which Ted is also shocked to learn that there are four countries in the UK.
At the locker room, both Ted and Beard observes the dynamic of the players. They sees Roy Kent stares at them coldly, so Ted decides to introduce themselves but he is being interrupted by Keeley Jones who is picking up Jamie. When he is trying to continue their introduction, the players ignore them, so the coaches decide to occupy the office and decorate it with American sport posters. Beard hands him a roll of tape so he can stick a 'BELIEVE' poster on the wall above their office door.
In order to get a flavor of Ted's management style at Richmond, Trent Crimm shadowed Ted during an average day coaching the club. Throughout the day, Trent can see coaching players means a great deal to Ted. During a visit to Richmond Primary School, Trent sees him work with the children and notice that Ted subtly tells Roy to be a leader of the team after the coach gave Roy a novel called 'A Wrinkle In Time'. They both eats at an Indian Restaurant afterwards to continue their conversations and Trent discovers that Ted is very polite especially to the server, Ollie and he is willing to finishes all the spicy Indian food they ordered because he doesn't want to offend the waiter.
Ted also tells Trent that he enjoys spending they day with him and informs him that he knows how much Richmond means a great deal to the Richmond upon Thames residents and community. Trent writes an article mostly praising Ted, much to the dismay of Rebecca.
Ted notices some tension between Jamie and Roy. He noted how they are dividing the locker room and how fights seem to ensue on a frequent basis. Ted decides to try and rectify the situation at the 10th Annual Benefit for Underprivileged Children. He put Roy and Jamie at the same table as him to see if he can help them work out their differences. During the event, the pair gradually spoke to one another more resulting in a better relationship between the two. Before the event, he also buys Nate a new suit after seeing him wearing an old and oversized suit belonged to his father - he tries to get Nate to be more confident and it seems it worked.
During the event, Ted help Rebecca organize the event and overcome difficulties with her husband, Rupert Mannion, unexpectedly attending the event. She confides in Ted how she feels about her husband and how she is the only one who can see who he really is. Ted speaks to Rupert and insinuated that the billionaire had intentionally cancelled Robbie Williams' appearance at the event in order to get back at Rebecca. After observing Rupert during the event, Ted is able to tell Rebecca that he also see who Rupert really is and she isn't the only one. Ted and Higgins then gets a street busker named Cam Cole to perform at the event, and eventually saves the night.
Lasso Special[]
During the final match, Roy chases down Jamie and manages to tackle him but with a heavy price as he hurt his knee badly. Isaac McAdoo then lead the team into using the 'Lasso Special' elaborate set-piece; the American Football strategy confuses the opposing team, and it gives Dani a chance to score a goal. After Richmond ties it in stoppage time, Jamie goes down the length of the pitch, without Richmond knowing because they are celebrating the goal. Jamie makes the extra pass to his team player, Hendrick, who scores the goal. Richmond loses the game and the club gets relegated.
Ted tries to hand in his resignation to Rebecca, but she doesn’t accept it. She wants them to come back stronger than ever next season and get the team promoted and finally win the whole thing.
Ted notices the team is distracted by the predictions they will finish last so he plans to take the Richmond players on a trip outside the stadium. The Richmond players get off the team bus and see they have arrived at a drain which leads down to the sewers which they reluctantly make their way down. Ted reveals to the players the reason why he brought them to the sewer system: is to show how it is full of other people’s excrement.
Richmond is experiencing a similar predicament where they are full of other people’s problems - such as those commenting on where Richmond will finish in the league - and they need to be aware of this and use it. If someone is feeling low on something whether that be confidence or happiness, they can draw on another player for strength.
Relationships[]
The Boss Lady[]
Every morning, Ted bakes a biscuit batch to be given to his new boss, Rebecca. At first she refuses but after tasting the biscuit, she relents and demands Higgins to get the recipe. Ted realizes that Rebecca is still awkward around him, and he wants to make her feel comfortable. Ted doesn't know that Rebecca resent him and plans to sabotage him in every way. When Ted is friendly with Keeley, Rebecca orders Higgins to post some unflattering pictures of them by hiring a paparazzi and publish them on some tabloids, but the plan goes kaput.
Ted continues developing a positive relationship with Rebecca, and when they find out that Rupert has Bex buys some Richmond's shares with his financial backing, he now may have an influence on the club. With Rupert threatens to join Rebecca in the owner's box during games, Ted challenges Rupert to a darts game with the understanding that if he won, Rupert would not enter the owner's box. Apparently, Ted is an expert dart gamer as he beat Rupert and settling the bet. During the game, Ted admits that he used to play some darts with his late father and he tells everyone that he'd been underestimated for a long time, and the fact that many people judges him without actually knowing him.
Rebecca finally tells Ted the truth and Ted forgives her. He understands how difficult divorce is and how it can make everyone do crazy things. Plus, the job has changed his life. It gave him the distance to see what was really going on with his family. Overwhelmed with emotion, Rebecca hugs him.
Family First[]
Before Richmond's game against Watford F.C., Ted's wife, Michelle, and son, Henry, pays him a visit from USA. Ted is very happy to see them and takes them out to The Crown & Anchor. It is apparent that the visit is very awkward between the adults, especially after he notices that his wife is crying the next day. Michelle reveals that she is having problems with their marriage and that she doesn't feel the same way about Ted anymore, in which he also mentions the only reason why he took the job is to give some space to his wife.
Ted says goodbye to Henry
Having initially worked through issues with a dysfunctional relationship between the club's players, Ted comes to a decision and offer her the chance to not feel trapped in their marriage and to move on with life. Through tears, the couple parts as Michelle and Henry heads back home.
Now separated from his wife, Ted has to take the next formal step of signing divorce paperwork. Michelle is keen to get this done sooner rather than later so both she and Ted could move on. The stress of this causes Ted to have a panic attack at a karaoke party but he does eventually sign the paperwork. Feeling mentally fragile, the night he signed the paperwork, he sleeps with Rebecca's friend Sassy while in Liverpool. He and Sassy then having a casual relationship throughout the years, which she tells him that they better as friends with benefit than an official couple.
Ted is shocked to find out that Michelle is having a relationship with their marriage counselor, Dr. Jacob Bryanson. He can't wrap the idea around his head that his ex-wife is with someone who was supposed to help them with their marriage. When Michelle, Henry, and Jacob visits Ted again, he finds out that Jacob is going to propose to Michelle in Paris. Distraught, he seeks advice to Rebecca who tells him that he needs to move on from Michelle and be with Henry's life instead and be a good father.
A Team Player[]
Ted can still see that Jamie is not a team player and is making games about him. To try to remedy this, he uses the returning player, Dani Rojas, as a way of bringing the best out of Jamie. When the players sees how Dani plays good, Ted convince that Jamie will rethink his position, however, Dani accidently got injured and attributes it as a curse in the treatment room. Ted decides to call every player to The Crown & Anchor and tells them to listen to Leslie Higgins and pub owner Mae telling a story about the origin of the curse. Ted suggests that they should come to the treatment room and bring an item from each player at midnight to do a 'ghost cleansing' ritual ceremony.
Everyone, including a reluctant Jamie throw items into a bin that means something to them and pay respect to prospective footballers and soldiers who fought in the war and had sacrificed things close to them. Jamie donates football boots which his mother had bought him, and he vows to make his mother proud through enjoying the game and being a good role model rather than taking his father's approach of acting tough.
Higgins and Ted then brings a now recovered Dani into the field, to the delight of the team players. They surrounds the burning bin and sing "Richmond 'Till We Die" together, making AFC Richmond truly united. Unfortunately, Rebecca decides to give Jamie back to Manchester City F.C. the next day, which angers Ted.
After the match against Man City and the Richmond is relegated, Jamie's father James Tartt yells at him for passing the ball to his team mate instead scoring by himself. He throws a shoe at Jamie, but misses. Ted witness the abuse from outside the treatment room and starts to understand where Jamie got his personality. He passes a heartfelt letter of appreciation to Jamie via Coach Beard along with a tiny green toy soldier as a reminder that he will always support him.
The Shrink and The Coach[]
Richmond starts the Championship season with seven draws and Dani gets a penalty that could have given them the first win of the season. Unfortunately, a tragic event interrupts the penalty as Richmond's mascot Earl Greyhound runs after a bird near the goal post. As Dani kicks the ball, it hit the dog and killed it. The tragedy leaves Dani traumatized, so Higgins suggests to brings a sports psychologist, Dr. Sharon Fieldstone to help him with his trauma.
At first, Ted is surprised and reluctant that Higgins is planning to bring a psychologist to their club, because he had a bad experience with therapists especially during his separation with Michelle, but he finally agreed. When Sharon first arrives, she is not impressed with Ted and Beard's antics regarding their superstitions. As Americans, both Beard and Ted are very superstitious regarding yips in sports and they a little bit put off by her cold demeanor and lack of humor. Ted is not happy that Higgins hired her for the rest of the season because he thought that she would only work on Dani, not the whole team.
Sharon chides Ted for barging into her office without knocking and said that she could have a session with a player. Ted apologizes and offers her a box of biscuits he made. At first she refuses but he insists that Sharon should try a bite, and while reluctantly take a piece, she notices that Ted starts to rambling about his life, which she finds interesting. She notices that Ted rambles nonsense and being super nice as a way to connect to new people, and it makes sense to his personality because it's very disarming to others. Ted seems distraught that Sharon caught his persona, especially when she mentions that she will observes the training.
Ted has to leave the FA Cup quarter-final game against Tottenham Hotspur F.C. because of his panic attack, he goes into Sharon’s office and wait for her. She is shocked to see Ted in her office and immediately sees that he is very distressed and quietly asks whether he's okay, which his only reply is "I want to make an appointment."
Initially, Ted is very dubious about seeing Sharon and storms out of an early session, citing how Sharon and other therapists don't care about their patients and only do it for the money. Sharon says to Ted in a later session that she took offence to this, citing that Ted would coach for free but he does not, and she also the same with him. Ted apologised, and they continue their sessions. Sharon cites that she cannot be his mentor without occasionally being his tormentor if they want to get to the roots of his problems, which Ted likes because of the puns.
The Father of RomCommunism[]
Ted tells everyone about the 'RomCommunism' philosophy; believing everything's going to work out in the end. But Isaac McAdoo has trouble coping with being the captain, so Ted decides to go to an unlikely source: Roy Kent. Ted wants Roy to return to Richmond and offers him the coach position. Roy immediately says no. After some reluctance, Roy asks Ted and Isaac to meet him at the place where he grew up and used to play football. Roy then tells Isaac to play a football game with some locals and after a few rounds, Isaac finds his bearing and has so much fun at the friendly game.
In the next match against Sheffield Wednesday F.C., Isaac is doing a fun warm-up doing funny handshakes with his fellow teammates and coaches. Roy abruptly leave the panel and run off to the Nelson Road Stadium to accept the coaching position. Isaac sees Roy enter the stadium and hear the crowds' chant, welcoming him. He approaches Ted and says that he accepts the coaching position.
The Mentor[]
Ted always think that Nate as his new friend and tries to help him whenever he can. His friendship is appreciated especially when he always compliment the kitman whenever he can. Ted empowers Nathan by regularly chatting with him during training sessions and also using his advice in a game against Crystal Palace F.C. which AFC Richmond eventually goes on to lose. He even invites Nate as his plus-one for the 10th Annual Benefit for Underprivileged Children and buys him a new suit after seeing him wearing his dad's old suit that is too big for him.
Ted and the team surprise Nate with a major promotion to an assistant coach. Nate is thrilled especially he receives a new whistle as a sign that he becomes an official coach assistant. Before the match against Manchester City F.C. in the FA Cup, Ted confesses to the Diamond Dogs that he had a panic attack during a match against Tottenham Hotspur, that was why he had to leave the match earlier. He admits that he's in therapy with Dr. Sharon Fieldstone now.
Sometime later, Nate leaked to Trent Crimm that Ted actually left the field because he had a panic attack. Trent feels he has a responsibility as a journalist to report this news, but due to his respect for Ted, he notify him about the article the night before and also leaked his source. Beard suspects that Nate was the one who leaked the news, especially seeing his behavior at the office. Beard tells Ted that he is suspicious of Nate, which Ted agrees as he knew from Trent that his anonymous source was Nate. Ted says that they shouldn't say anything, just let him come to them, but Beard disagrees and tells him to confront Nate.
When the squad's moral is low after being beaten during the half-time against Brentford F.C., Isaac McAdoo touches the "BELIEVE" sign on the wall, follows by the rest of the team members while the coaches (minus Nate) and Will Kitman looks proudly. Ted confronts Nate which makes the former kit man explodes. He thinks that Ted doesn't appreciate him and everyone is also underestimate him. He needs to be where he'd be appreciated it and tells Ted to fuck off.
Led Tasso[]
Jamie meets Ted at the pub and give back the green soldier to him, which he named it Ted after Ted Danson. Jamie admits that he's doing worse and wants to come back to Richmond, but Ted says that Jamie has burned a lot of bridges with everyone. Jamie and Ted's interaction in the pub is being recorded and photographed by the pub's regulars Jeremy, Paul, and Baz who shares them to social media, which upsets a lot of people.
Sam Obisanya is quite frustrated when he sees a picture of Jamie and Ted together, citing how the young man treated him and the team badly at the club back then. He tells Ted as much, and the coach reassures him that Jamie is not returning. However, everyone is shocked when they sees the ex-Richmond striker take to the training pitch.
Ted make a decision to become "Led Tasso" and acting like a mean coach to the team. His behavior is uncharacteristically weird as he yells, screams, and punishes the players the whole day. Jamie tells him to stop yelling at everyone, which prompts the coach to cancel the practice. The team mates thanked Jamie quietly except Sam, and Dr. Fieldstones observes that Ted is pretending to be mean so everyone make him the common enemy instead of Jamie.
Ted Lasso‘s football output[]
After a horrifying 1:4-loss to Crystal Palace at his debut lost three more games (0:2 at home against Leicester, 2:5 away at Tottenham, 1:2 away at Sheffield United) Ted Lasso was under pressure before the important match at home against Watford F.C. Initially, AFC Richmond 0:2 down after only 6 minutes. Upon reaching the half-hour-mark Jamie Tartt scores a brace to make it 2:2. With the final whistle of the game Samuel Obisanya scored the 3:2-winner after an assist from Roy Kent. At the end of the 2019/20 season Theodore Lasso and his AFC Richmond side got relegated with 34 points and a 3-11-3 balance sheet (3 wins, 11 losses, 3 draws) under Coach Lasso which brings Lasso a 0.71 point average after the first season. At the second season AFC Richmond got kicked out of the carabao cup after only on game, reached the semi-final of the FA Cup and finished the Championship season with a remarkable second place. Third season was the most successful season. Even though the club lost in the carabao cup early again, the team was capable of finishing the season on the second place again and won finally the FA Cup for the first time in their history. All in all, Ted Lasso won 60 times, lost 26 times and drew 29 times in 115 matches for Richmond, including the first major trophy for the Club. Overall, his point average in 2 and a half years is 1.82, which makes him the most successful manager in the history of AFC Richmond and a club legend.
Ted-isms[]
Ted is known to be interested in wordplay and making unusual metaphors — both for pure fun and in order to teach his players a lesson in a memorable way. He often play these word games with Coach Beard, as they once did while walking in a greenspace:
- Lasso: What if I joined forces with a swashbuckling cat to play tiny guitars with women of the night as we watched Alex Haley's most seminal work?
- Beard: You'd be in cahoots with Puss in Boots, playing lutes for prostitutes, reading Roots.
He is particularly fond of expressing his opinions about food. After landing in Richmond, he also became immediately fascinated with often basic differences between British and American English. Some of these included:
- 999
- Biscuit
- Boot
- Goldfish
- Oklahoma
- Peanut butter
- Scone
- Tea
- Wanker
- West Side Story
- Ties
- driver's seat on the right side
- favourite vs favorite
Trivia[]
According to Jason Studeikes, Ted Lasso was inspired by a real coach Jason had named Donnie Campbell, who now works as a math teacher.