Hobbies or Interests of Any Kind

I see a lot of posts mocking or complaining about Ted’s Bronco’s speech. Yes, there’s an inappropriateness to comparing a sport’s team to an immutable characteristic (though considering Colin’s grandma never spoke to him after Cardiff City FC’s relegation maybe not as much as we would otherwise expect). There’s still something in the speech that deserves more attention: joy.

Saying “I don’t care” to people about their identity is a) rude and b) means that the person saying it will likely be unable or unwilling to acknowledge that person’s identity-based problems. After all, it’s hard to fix a problem if you’ve decided you “don’t see” or “care about” the issue at hand.

Ted Lasso has previously emphasized the importance of community in hard times: “There’s something worse than being sad — and that’s being alone and being sad. Ain’t nobody in this room alone.” (The show goes out of its way to emphasize that the team mourns Richmond’s defeat in community, while Rupert, whose girlfriend doesn’t care about football, is left alone.) Refusing to care that Colin is gay would mean refusing to acknowledge that he is hurt by homophobic fans or a teammate saying “sounds a bit gay, bruv” in a way that others aren’t. Everyone in the audience knows that, and it would be easy for Ted to make sure the team knows it too.

That, though, is not where the show stops. Because the story Ted tells about his friend isn’t about someone alone in a hard time. It’s about someone alone in triumph. This guy is watching his team win back to back Super Bowls. This should be awesome. But it’s not -- or not like it should be -- because he’s alone. Think about how happy we are shown the fans in the pub are when Richmond is going up. It’s joy for the team but also joy in and with community. Ted’s friend didn’t have that, because people at best “didn’t care” about what he cared about.

Ted’s point is that they care about who Colin is and how his identity affects his experiences. Colin does not have to be alone.

What is the ache Colin has inside? When they win, he wants to be able to “kiss his fella the way the other guys are kissing their girls.” He wants to have equal access to shared joy. Homophobia in football means he can’t have that on the pitch or in front of the press. At least with the acknowledgement of the team, he can now have that in the locker room, the team Christmas party, and team dinners at Ola’s. Queer joy is also important.

I get poking fun at Ted for the Broncos speech in “La Locker Room Aux Folles.” It’s easy to feel that an inappropriateness to comparing an immutable characteristic to a sporting affiliation. After all, one can choose not to be a Broncos fan, no?

But people take sports and sports rivalries very seriously. Think about what we see characters in Ted Lasso do. Mae twice throws people about of the pub or declines to serve them because “this is a Richmond pub” (“Big Week” and “We’ll Never Have Paris”). Fans on Tumblr have praised that behavior in her. Colin’s own grandmother effectively disowned him when Cardiff City FC was relegated (“The Hope That Kills You”).

In “Diamond Dogs,” Keeley admits she “fucked [Jamie] to get back at [Roy] for something [he] didn't even know [he] did.” As far as we know, that’s the last time Jamie and Keeley hooked up. But from Jamie’s point of view, that would look pretty much like his ex invited him in for sex and then straight away jumped over to his nemesis. You know, like, maybe, she fucked Roy to get back at Jamie for something Jamie didn't even know he did.