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During the fourth episode of Ted Lasso Season 3, they pay homage to the late soccer journalist Grant Wahl in a couple of ways. Brendan Hunt, who plays Coach Beard in the popular Apple TV+ series, has spoken about these tributes to the journalist.
In the newly-released episode, Coach Beard holds a copy of Wahl's book, The Beckham Experiment. However, it wasn't always planned as a tribute. Initially, this easter egg was meant as a nod to the journalist, but after the tragic events of the men's World Cup in Qatar last year where Wahl died of an aortic aneurysm, this became more than just a subtle nod to him.
Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter, Hunt talked about including Wahl's book in the fourth episode: “When we knew we were going to have the storyline of Trent embedded with the team, we thought about reporters who’ve done that — John Feinstein came to mind [for his book A Season on the Brink, about Indiana University’s basketball program], and Grant as well. Specifically, because Grant’s book is about football but also about the arrival of a superstar and the change of a culture with David Beckham, we went to him right away.”
As it turns out, Wahl was a bigger part of Ted Lasso than he might've imagined. Hunt detailed how the writers of the series sent Wahl some questions in hopes he could provide some answers but got a lot more in return. “In what I now know to be his typical generosity with his time, he wrote very long, very detailed, very valuable answers to all our questions. He was hugely helpful.”
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In addition, the creators of Ted Lasso paid tribute to Grant Wahl once again with a title card dedicated to him at the end of the episode.
The first four episodes of Ted Lasso Season 3 are available to stream on Apple TV+. Episode 5 premieres on April 5.
