Men in Blazers 05/03/23 Ted Lasso Pod Special with Jason Sudeikis and Brendan Hunt

Hey Prime members, you can listen to Men in Blazers ad free on Amazon Music download the app today. Hi, I'm Lindsay Graham, host of Wondrous Business Movers. In our latest series, Phil Knight bets the future of his little known shoe company Blue Ribbon Sports on a big move, creating his own in-house brand. With this bold direction, Phil creates one of the most recognizable and successful companies in the world, Nike. Listen to business movers becoming Nike on Amazon Music or wherever you get your podcasts. You're listening to the Men in Blazers Media Network suboptimal radio. Ted Lasso may be the most world famous footballer America has ever produced, and he's a fictional character. No one's more famous than a Lexi Lullis Raj. You've already established this. You're right, he did talk with Hootie and the Blue Fish. That's right, when he was lead singer of the Spin Doctors. Joining me now, two gents that I imagine Renee Brown believes to be the greatest American duo I've crapped you not since Hall and Oates. Friends who came out of the Amsterdam comedy scene as if it was the IACS Academy, proceeding to craft a truly beloved show, which went from pandemic stealth cult favourite to global sensation, winning Emmys at a clip Manchester City, win Premier League titles, and giving the world an ecosystem of characters, kindness and bravery, while not being afraid to reveal the pathos that challenges us all. The third season of Ted Lasso is now faintly audible around the globe, available on Apple Plus. Every episode, really just one enormous pre-order teaser for Trent Crimson's forthcoming blockbuster of a book. It's an incredible joy to welcome. In a moment that is as close as I may ever come to raising a beer with the Diamond Dogs themselves, Ted Lasso co-creators Jason Sudeikis, the one true King of Kansas City, and my mate, long time friend of this pod, King of Scott, Mr. Brendan Hunt. Welcome, gents. Ah, aye Raj, thank you for yet another glorious welcome. Goodness gracious, I could have listened to that for another 20 seconds. I'll give you another 15 day off. But first of all, I've got to congratulate you on this incredible confection that you've crafted to quote one of my favourite literary critics, Trent Krim, if the lasso way is wrong. It's hard to imagine being right, and this show came to us in a time of darkness, August 2020, Pete Pandemic resonated so deeply, gave the world a lifeline of nourishment, hope, belief, gave us all the ability to cope with the real darkness of life, and now you've just decided to end it, WTF? Well, I think the world's fixed. Everything's fine now, Raj. We did it. Everybody's good. We've got to move on. Our work is done here. That's when Mary Poppins pops that umbrella up and just off she goes. Mr Banks has been saved, Raj. It wasn't about the kids. Mission accomplished. I've got to say, I do admire so much about the show, just the realisation of football at its best. Transcends football. The way it's ensured, for the next decade, people will slap the word believe on a wall and trust its ability to make collectives achieve great things. I mean, we're living in a world in which your fiction has blurred with fact in the last month alone. Masters champion John Romb described how be a goldfish helped him win the green jacket, and last night, Lebron James, in one of the most existential playoff series of his life, strolled out pregame in the AFC Richmond hoodie, and the Lakers tweeted the word believe. You gents have created a quasi-religious theology for our age. Yeah, well, and that's the shame of it is you've finally found out what we were trying to do the whole time. Just that theology minor is really, really finally coming through for us. I read the back of Dianetics and I was like, we can do that. Come on. That ain't tough. We don't need these gadgets and personality testers. Yeah, let's throw a sign out there. Make sure it's got contrast colors. They'll lap it up. I should know that Lebron did go 5 for 17, and the Lakers lost the game. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Turn that out. But perhaps the thing I love most, something singular about the skin of the show, the tone, is a mix of British humour and American can-do optimism. Was that conscious, that fusion? Like, we're going to try and split the comedy atom, or was it just an unconscious reflection of both of your natural personal influences? I think that was pretty intentional, actually, because that's the crux out of the fish out of water of it, is we are putting this Midwestern, Jimmy Stewart-ish guy into this English world, and like, we were literally thinking of the tone of the office, the original office when we were putting the show together, and that kind of evolved into, like, if we're going to set it in England, we have to honour the English county we love, and English-like pace, and English style. So, you are reading correctly, sir. So, what are those English influences? Comedy-wise. Oh gosh, I mean, a huge one is the British office. I mean, the British office and the Olegie show the first season of that on HBO showed up right when I got Tivo. You know, when I was working at Second City in Las Vegas at that point, and performed comedy all night for, you know, audiences of eight to a hundred people, then come home and see the Brits just crushing it in ways that I didn't understand. Like, I was just like, what is this? How is this happening? Thinking that I knew it all. You know, I was like mid-20s, you didn't think you knew it all, and then you see this happening. I just said, this is nuts. Around the same time, believe it or not, I got into Monty Python. I wasn't into it as a kid, and I remember the 25th anniversary. A buddy of mine, Matt Dwyer, takes me to go see Holy Grail in the theatres. We saw it at noon, and I'm like, why did you get, I'm going, this is everything I love. How am I not influenced by this? It was so wonderful and just challenged any sort of arrogance that I would have had about comedy and just everything I thought was possible or that I thought was good. I'm just like, this has been sitting here for years, and I wasn't influenced by it until that very moment. And then I just realized, oh, I got a lot to learn. I'm still doing it. And by extension of that, my Python family tree, a fish called Wanda, giving a bit of a guidebook of how to deal with the American English divide as well. So it's about that tone, but it's also about your relationship and the origins of the show really are in the formation of your relationship in Amsterdam. You met at the comedy club Boom Chicago, and Brendan, you've said quote, that's where you discovered the quality that's at the core of Ted Lasso and excuse my Dutch. It's called Gazilge Heide, can you explain that word? I just butchered because I love the notion that ultimately all we need is the world to be a bit more gazilge. I mean, your pronunciation is not so much the problem as just don't do with that much of a German accent or any Dutch people. That's really, that's really not going to. The volume was intense too. It was just a throat clearing. It's always just a throat clearing. I believe you're referring to the concept of gazellech and gazellechide. See, much more subtle. See how the room rolls off. I think that person plays for Aston Villa, but go on, tell us what it means. Yeah, so it's not literally translatable to English, but it can mean cozy or warm, like a fireplace, it is gazellech, but it can also just be like the way you hang out with folks. Like this right now is very gazellech. If there had been a car alarm or a truck backing up down an infinite street behind us, just beeping in a way, that would be very un-gazellech. So it can go to a bunch of different levels. Ted Lasso himself, a character full of rrrrrrride. You said you were influenced by a number of real people in the construction. You know, a lot of Midwestern gents. I've read you talk about John Wooden, his teachings as a model and a philosophy, but was there any manager in soccer football that you modeled him on? Because I interview a lot of managers. They're amazing human beings, but it's not a place, a culture, a Premier League with a lot of nice guys. Yeah, I mean, John Wooden would have been the biggest. His book, The Pyramid of Success, all that stuff. There's this great book, this little blue and yellow book actually called Wooden. Well, very cleverly crafted title. Then I picked up in my early days of doing improv in Chicago, which is actually where Brendan and I first met, but we really, the majority of when we first started to work together was in Amsterdam a year or two after that. And I just went to this thing for improv teachings. So as much as the notion of Kazellek that's rooted in Dutch culture, there's also the whole notion of yes-anding and following the follower and all these different things. So I had plenty of improv teachers as much as my athletics coaches and stuff back home in Kansas when I was playing basketball that it's probably more based on than any specific person. But I think we've certainly noticed a person that early on spoke of digging the show, Jurgen Klopp. It's like, yeah, that guy has a very similar vibe. You know, like you like hearing about him taking his players out to do karaoke. It's like, yeah, that's great. Or if they're in a city just walking down the street is like, is that all of Liverpool? It's like, you know, training kids and everything. It's like, yeah, and that feels exactly like something Ted would do. Brendan, it's Jamie Tore Jack Greelish. Can you seem to be more and more grills? He is not quite Jack Greelish. We created Jamie Tore before Greelish was really a thing, you know, like he was at Villa, but he wasn't like the full national security issue for the country that he is currently. Before his calves were uninsured. But herewise, we are definitely drawing from the Greelish well very, very heavily in season three. Nikki and who's our department head for her and make up her and Phil Dunster who play Jamie Tore. I think they have a little powwow at the beginning of each season. Like, who's hair are we going to style this on? So I know Beckham, Greelish certainly. God, if there was a season four at a piece of Dan's turn, but who is Zaver based on? I mean, a lot of people think Zlatan, but I put a ton of money at the bookmakers and he's just a thinly veiled Alexi Lallis. Well, thank you for saying that because every time I get this question, the lawyers get nervous and to honor the lawyers, it just be very clear. Zlatan is drawn from any number of the collective, the eccentric diva types that have populated football since the days of Al-Framzy. He's not a good example. But yeah, there's a lot of Zlatan in there. There's a whole lot of Zlatan. You know, we knew with Ted having to try to win the whole effing thing this year, and was like, okay, well, if that's really going to happen, you've got to have a world-class player who do you want to draw from. Well, we kind of already did Ronaldo with Jamie to a degree, and Messi, he just fits in too well in any room. But oh, the old Zlatan sparks. Those could fly around this room pretty well. And then Zava was where we ended up. So, Lallis, it is. You were very right to be careful because he's very litigious. I will say the one thing that was fun is more than half of our writers room could care less about the sport. So, a lot of these times when we end up speaking about things, they end up using sport as metaphor, or using showbiz as a metaphor for explaining sport, or vice versa. And so really, Zava is the example we would give is like, if you've got a million dollars to make your small little indie movie, and then like Tom Cruise says, I want to do it. And then you're like, wait, what? So that increases your budget, increases the eyeballs, gives you all this autonomy, but it's also now Tom Cruise. You got to worry about what he wants at craft services. It's a big darn deal when Tom Cruise says yes to your movie or Cameron Diaz, or like one of these titans of industry. And so that's a little bit of what we're doing there, as Zava. So that's like less of an influence of one specific person. But I would say almost every character on the football side is inspired by something that really happened, or loosely based on someone that we already know exists, but then we dump about seven to eight other influences into that thing. And then just make other shit up. Season three, we are in the midst of a joy-filled, learned-to-cycle romp. Richmond have been promoted again, and a battling for mid-table security, touch of the Fulhams about them, Yo-Yo Club, also living out Nate the Great's betrayal, filled with a lack of self-esteem. He's got the full Mourinho, vengeance, darkness, seething reprisals, just like Mourinho went from club translator to Dark Knight Champions League winner. I am interested in your creative process. I read you once said that you knew from the very beginning that you wanted this to be a three-act structure, hence three seasons how you were going to land the play. But did you really know from the beginning that you'd send sweet, sweet Nate on this former Kit Man to hit Man Oc? No, not right off the bat. That was revealed. I remember when we were shooting. It became very clear in the writing process of writing Episode 7. You'll know that as the Everton episode. Yes, the Everton episode. Yeah, karaoke, et cetera. It was when writing Episode 7 when Nate gives the halftime speech, and he just lays in, becomes like Don Rickles' roast comic, and I was like, oh, oh. I mean, I think a lot of writers speak towards this, where you kind of let the characters guide you as weird as that may seem. And it just, again, that's one of those stories that the intoxication of new fame to not really say a quote that Rick James said, but new fame is a hell of a drug. And so what happens when you get everything you want and how hard that is to deal with? The world does have good and evil, and it's like part of the show's themes is like, how do you react to it? When you're given this power, what do you do with it? And that's like a Abraham Lincoln quote, you know, any man can overcome adversity to test a man's true character, you give him power. See what they do with it. That heel turn, Nate's heel turn. Some would say it's just not believable, but they clearly not heard the term, Anthony Gordon-esque, hashtag not my ginger prince. But a slight segue, Nate's club, West Ham. How did you choose West Ham to be the bad guys? Don't have to sign off on that, it was David Moyes just like, yeah, embrace that heel casting. Oh, yeah, David Moyes was super happy about it. You know, like, okay, Rupert's going to buy another club. What club would Rupert buy? We decided that he wasn't quite rich enough to be an oil, oligarch, so it'd be Chelsea Arsenal, anything in Manchester, it would be sort of out of the question. And anyway, he would want to stay closer to home. Like, maybe the South, now, now, gotta be London and process of elimination. West Ham was pretty quickly it. Now, I should note that when we were writing this, Fulham was in the championship and there was no guarantee they would be promoted. Fulham might have made more geographic sense and our transpo budget would have plummeted instead of having to go all the way out to Olympic Stadium, which is rumored to be in London, but I'm not sure that's actually the case. So West Ham, it was. But anyway, picking West Ham pre-season to be a lock for fifth, which the pundits did in the show, is the first time I've watched head lasso and found it too far fetch. But I do want to thank you for your magical realism. It's like Gabrielle Garcia Marquez levels this season three. When you flashed up the league table and had Everton in eighth, I've got to tell you, watching it, I cried. It was such a beautiful sight to see. You've got a big heart, Brendan, and I appreciate you. But I want to talk about you both from real football, because there's times over the past year when I began to think that you were only filming this incredible global sensation as a means to an end. And the end was not to create a television show, not to have your own signature ice cream brand, both of which you've achieved. But for you guys to find a way to watch as much top flight English football as humanly possible, the one month last year, when I began to believe, it wasn't legally possible for the to be an English football match with you both in attendance. So it was like a weekend when you were at Brentford, Tottenham, QPR, Boren Wood, Arsenal, you were everywhere. What was that experience like to watch and make memories together as mate? Part of it is a reflection of something that has been really great about this experience, which is the football world has really opened up to us. It's funny to me when we see the odd social media troll complaining about this football fact we got wrong or not, but like, oh yeah, you know who doesn't mind? You're in fucking clock, man. The kel fucking are tetra. They let it slide. They see what we're doing here. Why don't you take a look? So when given access, one might not have it forever. One must take up that access. Mine, mine, mine. At the beginning, you said I love football, but I describe myself a little like Ted as ignorant, but curious, but little by little. It seems you become quite a die-hard or something. I mean, yeah, I mean, getting into it, one being, you know, as close as I am to this fella, and also things like, you know, the all or nothing show, you know, where you get to spend time with the folks, you know, on and off the pitch. The same thing we're kind of doing with the show, but in real life. But then getting into FIFA and playing a lot of FIFA over the last four years, which, you know, we use to, you know, break a lot of stories and for real, especially during the lockdown, then that man city was my team that I would use and watching and they're all are nothing, you know, before we started writing, and then really digging and pep in his verve and fashion sense. Of course, we speak about that a lot on the show. He does things with Kashmir that have never been invented before. Yeah, I know. And they all look great. That's the other thing. I mean, it's not just his choice, you know, it's also his body, and the way it's silhouette. And it's, it's, he's got like one of those, like, you know, little Mick Jagger wastes. He's taught. It's like he got, you got to put in an extra, you know, hole on those belts. I wish. Thank God that sentence ended in belts. Yeah. Yeah. Oh boy. But yeah, but Arsenal has been lovely to us from the get to, I mean, that was sort of one of our reasons again when we did the commercials back in 2013, 2014 that we put in the contract with, you know, the Premier League. It was like, Hey, can we get back for a match? We want to come for a match and between myself and Brendan and Joe, the biggest fan by far is Brendan is his club is Arsenal. Everyone knows it. And so we went to go see Tottenham because that was the team that Ted coached and got fired from the first commercial and we went to go see Tottenham at Tottenham against Arsenal. And I'll say it. I'll tell you, Brendan wore red socks and he got away with it. Oh, God, I've got a soundie Brendan. That is a proper hooligan move when the secret red sock, right? I mean, Brendan, that's like licking your fingers and putting them right in the socket. That is proper hard, but you weren't booing for Manchester yesterday. We're at War of the Red Sox again. Yeah. Just to sit and demonstrate your Arsenal. You're on the field before it. You were chatting with the old Gallagher. My lip reading is a bit off, but did you tell him that if Roy Kent and Jamie Tark can make up, he and Liam should just get their asses back together? Well, that's, we just wanted to watch the show because I think that's the, they'll sniff that out on its own and it will mean more. Show, don't tell. We literally say in the first minute of the first episode in a manner of speaking that, you know, Liam's a nut, Knowles a nut, and they should be together in one bag forever, forever and ever and ever. So, Knowles hasn't actually watched the show. We learned, but his son has. His son has his 12 year old son has, which I appreciate. The bridges have been built. Yeah. Shouldn't we all in life be together in one bag? For God's sake, look, there's still a lot more football to play this season. Well, a little more football to play this season. If Arsenal do not win this title, this season of magic memories and rainbow infused unicorn dreams turn to ashes, you know, the frustration of a mentally and physically shattered tail spin without finish line in sight. What a human agony. What would Ted Lasso Jason say about that experience? Mm. I feel like you probably speak towards the marathon of life versus the sprint of a season. God, runners nipple just came to mind. Yeah, you said that. Sure. Absolutely. Yep. You know, I get that. Um, I thought I've just never heard it referred to in only a singular sense. If you're lucky, that is. Makes it sound more, more like a cocktail when you only make it one nipple, just a nipple. Sir, I'm a runners nipple, please. Go on. Ted, last thing. What would he say? I mean, similar to something that actually Colin Hughes says, like, you know, don't cry that it's over, that we didn't win, smiled that it happened. I think about your the line about wanting you to be grateful we're going through this sad moment with all these other folks. Because I promise you there's something worse out there than being sad, and that's been alone and being sad, which is essentially sub-tweeting Everton Football Club. But what would, what would Brendan Hunt the real-life Arsenal fan say? You know, it's one of those things where you look back before a season and go, okay, what I have taken X and like the goal for the season was Champions League. Champions League has now been assured. Yay. But even before this city game, this bad run they went in, feels like kind of led an opportunity slip through Arsenal's hands. Having said that, it's not over yet. And, you know, maybe the unstoppable Death Football Robots of Man City can actually have a trip up or two in this crowded fixture list they're headed toward. So, hashtag believe. God, by the way, a runner's nipple I've just had on the authority is one-pot gin, bitters, and Jack Greenless's sweat. But from a football fandom perspective, you two have gone to the looking glass over the past couple of years. You will with Virgil Van Dyke, incredible bloke, Leah Williamson, just an national icon. Roy Keene, Harry Keene both talked about how much they love the show. That's an incredible, you've got everyone. If you've got Roy Keene and Harry Keene, you've got the world. Arsenal coach, Michael Arteta, he has to meet you both after a game. Huge, I so fan. What was that like, Arteta? What did he tell me? He said, thank you for the show. You make me look at things in a different way. Yeah. And he was all smiles. Also ran into him last night. It was much briefer. I did. Exchange. Just a quick big fan take care. Yeah. Which, you know, was still nice. Still very nice. Oh, my God. You take a moment. It's beautiful. But there's so many amazing, weird things that have happened, but that is a 99th percentile cherry on the cake. It's that time of year again, where every game counts, where a split second propels a player to stardom, where the childhood dream of draining the last second shot to win it becomes reality. It's NBA playoff season. Hey, it's JJ Redick, host of the old man in the three podcast. If you're a die-hard hoop head like me, then you know there's no better time of year than NBA playoffs. Tune in every week as I sit down with stars like Damian Lillard, Luca Doncic and Kevin Durant. We get real about the inner workings of the league, like when Damian Lillard opened up about his 71-point game, or when Paul George came on to explain why nobody talks trash to Kawhi Leonard. We also unpack top stats, trends and preview big games across the league. We cover it all without the outlandish takes. If you're a basketball fan, follow the old men in the three wherever you get your podcast. You can listen ad-free on the Amazon Music or Wondery app. The joy you brought on screen to football, you've also continued to bring off it and Jason, turning up for the premiere of season two in Los Angeles. And you rolled up at this glitzy affair with a sweater that became global news. Jaden and Marcus and Bekayo attribute to England's three young, talent-so-black footballers who've been subjected to racial abuse online by their own fans. In the wake of England's heartbreaking Euro 2020 defeat in Italy a week before. And I loved it in the moment. It showed that like your character, you truly understand that football at its heart is all about human goodness. But I'm also fascinated by that decision by an American bloke from Kansas in Los Angeles. It says so much about who you are and what your eyes have been open to while making the show to make that decision to wear it. Yeah, I mean, we were coming home from a family reunion Chicago going back to Los Angeles and I couldn't get the Wi-Fi and so I couldn't watch the whole match. So I'm just doing it on like Yahoo, just refreshing it. Every sort of see what's going on. I see that goes into penalties and then we land and I see the last three kicks. Maybe it's part of being a father. Maybe it's part of having grown up with playing athletics and having friends that had missed a big shot. I mean, basketball being more my sport. I just couldn't help but think how tough that would feel just there. Just doing what they love, having a chance to do it on behalf of their country and then not going their way. Then when all the stuff started to happen online, it just upset me. It was just angering me. And here we are, this show that had this giant platform working for this giant, the biggest company in America. And they were going to throw out this beautiful gorgeous blue carpet for us and I landed in LA and I just saw it in my head. And then we found a place that could make a t-shirt really, really quick and I sent it in. I used the fellows first names because I just want to remind people that they're young men. I was like, you know, I didn't want to use their last names. That's what's on their kits. I want to use the first names, the ones that their parents gave them. And yeah, just kind of like, just humanize the situation, let them know that we see them, that we cherish them, we honor them. And like, not everyone feels that way and the people that do don't matter. British Vogue went mad for the sweater. They did a feature on it and on your style, which you ended with this incredible quote. I fucking love that Phil Foden kid. What do you love about Phil Foden? I don't know, which is weird because, yeah, I have contact with like, well, I'm talking about these three young fellows and then I mentioned Phil. He reminds me so much of like the point guards I would hate guarding. I would hate playing against. Like he's just got a swagger to him. He's got that little pigeon chest and he just like kind of like walks around and just like, you know, and he's just so good when the ball's on his feet. He just, he does. He reminds me of, I mean, no one that's, you know, ended up becoming an NBA superstar or anything. But like kids that I just, I was like, ugh. And as an adult who doesn't play anymore, I like those kids more now. I want to ask you one serious question about the manifestation of the show's global popularity. Jim Curtin, Philadelphia Union coach, one of the finest young managers that we produced. He was asked what he made of Ted Lassay. And this is a manager who's tipped by many to be on the radar of European teams. He said, I love the humanness of it. They've got the locker room close to right. But he also said, do I think it's set back the American coach 20 years? Yes, I do. We work so hard to get to Europe and then Jesse Marsh kind of breaks in. And it's like, what a curse to have that show break out at the same time as he's there. Now, you guys know football. You follow football. You know, do you have a sense of how powerful the show is? You've actually created a rod that's being used to beat American coaches, real American coaches in real life, like Chris Hormer at Manchester United, who the fans called mockingly Ted Lassay and Jesse Marsh, who got the same nickname while he was at Leeds. Well, just two things for our good friend Jim is Jesse Marsh got hired at Leeds after Ted Lassay had been out for two seasons already. So his timeline doesn't really jibe. We're going to pick it apart here. First of all, curtain. Let us draw curtain here and get real for a second. And secondly, like our show is not about an American soccer coach. Our show is about an American coach who ends up coaching soccer. He is not the profile of the American soccer coach at all. So if there's any like American stereotypes out there that are hurting the American coach out there, it's more in the vein of married with children. I will say, you know, Raj, I will say that I also find the dig anybody doing that to any American coaches is being pretty lazy too. Lazy is not an insult in England, Jason. Yeah, no, I don't mean to be insulting even if it was. No, they'd be proud of that. As a guy from Kansas, I get a lot of where's Toto and you're not in Kansas anymore. And I smile and I nod and I never put Frank Elbaum on blast. Oklahoma Joe's barbecue, you'll never sing that. But you know, it is amazing that on the men's side at least Ted Lasso may be the most world famous footballer America has ever produced. And he's a fictional character. No one's more famous than a Lexi Lallis, Raj. You've already established this. You're right. He did talk with who to you in the bluefish. That's right. When he was lead singer of the spin doctors. Back to the show, Jason. You asked if this third season is definitely the last one. And you said, I mean, it's definitely the last season of this story that I can say. And you've hinted about possible new iterations. What does that mean? Are we like Ted Lasso prequel NFL career like Hard Knocks meets yellow state? Kyle, these are all great ideas. And if we use any of them, you don't see a dime, buddy. I'm sorry. I've got Lallis's lawyer, Jason. I'm a retainer. I mean, the reason the whole three season thing even happened, and we never knew we were going to get to do it. But when Brendan and Joe and I sat down way back in 2015, we just were kind of modeling it after the British office, you know, that had, you know, a lot of people. And we were like, oh, I'm going to be in the office, you know, that had two seasons of six episodes, and then that, you know, amazing Christmas special. And so we had always had, you know, one season, two season, and then floated this idea of like, oh, and what if we did instead of a Christmas special, like a movie that took place in a match in real time to have, you know, the pre match. Yeah, exactly. So, you know, and still a viable idea. But then the thing took off and we were allowed to tell all three seasons of this story in this arc. And so sort of have to end it the way we saw it. I mean, it's flattering that people asked. There's a little bit of me, the Ted Lasso and me, and in all of us, I think would want us to live in the moment a little bit and just be happy with what is ongoing is only halfway done. That being season three, but we appreciate the compliment that is, can we get more? Will we get more? And there hasn't been enough time really for this treadmill to slow down to like really marinate on that in the same way that we were marinated on. We were marinated on the other, first three. Brendan Hunt, Coach Beard, after Richmond, the US men's national team are looking for a manager as we speak. Ha ha ha. Yeah, I mean, we know that Coach Beard is not a number one. He is strictly Joe Jackson material. Would you be my number two, me and number one are through, and that is a shadow in which he is more than comfortable to stand. Oh, stepping out. You could partner with Chris Ormas and go and coach in the Saudi Arabian League. Ooh. Oh, because Ronaldo is having such a good time. It seems like a win for everybody. Be great for your sinuses. Oh, God. Alexie Allis is two princes. It's really just about Ted Lasso and Coach Beard. I feel like we've just done a lot of times doing a lot more. This for all of you has been an incredible chapter of your careers. Is there a certain mourning process that you're experiencing as you say goodbye to these characters? I think not, as he says, the treadmill is still chugging along right now. Like we really only just finished post, which Jason had far more of his time dedicated to than the rest of us. But if it is done, then yeah, maybe at some point, but I'm trying to just savor it while it lasts because it has been amazing and it is amazing. And also like it will end someday because all things do. Impermanence is undefeated. And so no, no mourning of any kind right now because, first of all, it's not a funeral yet. But, but secondly, there's just so much about it to enjoy still. But like me, you're a Chicago Bears fan, self sabotaging disaster of the team. I'm also an Everton fan, even more self sabotaging disaster of the team. White Sox fan. You do have a therapist, yes, Raj? Yes, you friend. It's looking to you, baby, to drive asking you. I mean, White Sox are the worst AFC Richmond. They're essentially all I got. And I don't want spoilers or anything, but tell me we're going to be OK. We're going to be all right, right? Oh, I think so. Yeah. I mean, because, you know, we'll all be together. God, Jason, you just blew my mind. And cut. Jason, last one for you. Ted Lasso has changed many lives. I mean, mine, for instance, I'm now the owner of a playpeople coach beard. Do you have one of these Brendan, by the way? Yes, I do. And I showed my figurine to my two-year-old, and he was not interested. And then we showed him the Roy Kent figurine, and he went, Dada! By the way, fight your arm off to what, like, Roy Kent's playmobile character. Jason, I was honestly being serious about Ted Lasso changing millions of lives around the world. Serious question. How has it changed your life, changed you as a human being? Oh, boy. I'm not a, you know, a method actor. At least I don't think. I've never been trained in it. Maybe I'm doing it accidentally. But the ability to access that mindset, the Ted Lasso mindset, which I think is in any of us, in all of us, at different degrees, and be able to click into that and sort of feel the responsibility of conveying that when meeting people or hearing people's, you know, feelings about the show or their reaction to the show, or how it's helped them through difficulty, whether it be, because they've gone through a similar thing with maybe a parent, you know, like Ted's father, or help a family member deal with, you know, something in a hospital room or a classroom, or what have you, is, I wouldn't say overwhelming, but it is very, it's very moving. You can't help but change the way you view people and the way you meet them wherever they are and to just kind of like offer a little, you know, grace and space towards whatever they're going through to, and hopefully can turn that same, you know, those same values on to, you know, myself and to the people nearest and dearest to me, not just, you know, the strangers that are, you know, brave enough and kind enough to come up and say hello or share their stories with us. To more grace and space, to more football fandom grounded in love, and to both of you, to your continued success, to AFC Richmond, to a Euro arsenal, thanks, gents. Thanks, sir. Thank you, Raj. I miss you! You seem courage. Hey, Prime members, you can listen to Men in Blazers ad free on Amazon Music, download the Amazon Music app today, or you can listen ad free with Wonder E Plus in Apple Podcasts. Before you go, tell us about yourself by completing a short survey at wonderry.com slash survey.