Grant Wahl’s widow shares the many ways ‘Ted Lasso’ creators paid tribute to KC native
Fans of “Ted Lasso,” the hit Apple+ show, have learned by now to look for Easter eggs while watching.
Many of those “did-you-notice” moments have been about Kansas City, and the latest episode contains nods to a man who grew up in KC: Grant Wahl.
Wahl, the noted soccer writer, died in December at age 48 while covering the World Cup in Qatar.
Wednesday’s episode, the fourth of season three, was dedicated to Wahl, and there were other references to the Shawnee Mission East graduate, as his widow, Dr. Céline Gounder, noted on Twitter.
The fictional Richmond soccer team adding a superstar player was kind of like the Los Angeles Galaxy adding David Beckham. That was the subject of a book by Wahl called the “Beckham Experiment.”
Brendan Hunt, who plays Coach Beard, told IndieWire of how Wahl helped the “Ted Lasso” creators.
“As we were putting together the storyline of Trent (Crimm) embedding himself with the team, that’s exactly what Grant did with LA Galaxy,” Hunt told IndieWire. “So we reached out to him with a few questions, hoping he might have some time to give us some quick answers. He gave us voluminous responses to every single question that were so helpful. Putting the Trent story together, he was just so generous with his time. It’s a really, really terrible loss.”
