‘Ted Lasso’ honours late football journalist Grant Wahl

Ted Lasso’s latest episode paid tribute to the late football journalist Grant Wahl. Wahl collapsed and died during the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, due to what was later diagnosed as a ruptured aortic aneurysm.

At the end of the “Big Week” episode the words “In memory of Grant Wahl” appeared as the end credits. Earlier in the episode, Coach Beard, played by Brendan Hunt is seen lugging around a copy of The Beckham Experiment written by Wahl.

Wahl’s widow Celine Gounder thanked Jason Sudeikis, Hunt and Brett Goldstein along with an image of the tribute card.

“It ain’t no use to sit and wonder why, babe… Thank you,@jasonsudeikis, @brendanhunting, @brettgoldstein. This episode means so much to me and my family,” Gounder wrote.

Hunt, who also serves as an executive producer on the show, said Wahl was instrumental in developing the character of Trent Crimm (played by James Lance), who plays a journalist covering the fictional Richmond F.C. in the first two seasons of the Emmy-winning show. Season 3 shows Crimm writing book about the club.

“So we reached out to him [Wahl] with a few questions, hoping he might have some time to give us some quick answers,” Hunt told IndieWire in an interview. “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.”

Wahl was a renowned football journalist, who spent years covering the sport in the US when it wasn’t as mainstream as it is at present. The journalist was also an early fan of Ted Lasso.