Wednesday Headlines: Ted Lasso Edition

“Just be a goldfish.”

By John Morgan Francis@MonJorgan Aug 31, 2022, 8:00am EDT

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Photo by Universal Television/Entertainment Pictures

If you haven’t watched the first two seasons of Ted Lasso on Apple TV, cancel your plans for the next few nights and dive in. It’s certainly well worth it. If you have, then you likely love Ted Lasso and you’ll be able to appreciate the Kentucky Football team’s love for Ted Lasso, too.

Kentucky Sports Radio’s Nick Roush wrote an excellent piece on how the show has impacted the Wildcats. True freshmen wide receivers Barion Brown and Dane Key have earned their starting roles through practice. However, to Roush’s point, they haven’t played in front of 60,000 fans yet.

Wide receivers coach Scott Woodward told Roush that the biggest thing Brown, Key and other are going to have is overcoming adversity early on. He asks no matter if you drop a ball, line up incorrectly or miss an assignment, how can you combat that, come back and play the next play?

“Have a short memory, be the happiest animal on the planet.”

That’s the quote from Ted Lasso that Woodward wants his receivers to remember. He played them a clip earlier in the month about being be a “goldfish.”

While Woodward has used Ted Lasso to help coach his young receivers, the UK quarterbacks have done the same. Their meeting room has the famous “Believe” sign — a replica from the sign that hung above Lasso’s office in the team locker room.

It’s fascinating how a TV show can be used as coaching tactics to prepare young players for the bright lights. It shows the quality of coaching head coach Mark Stoops has on his staff and, to their credit, just how great the show Ted Lasso really is.

As usual, Roush put together an excellent piece of storytelling and you can read the full story here.