"Be curious, not judgemental."

 Woke up to this:

This assistant coach was fired on Monday for this action last Friday. He worked for Jesuit High School, a Christian High School in Tampa, Florida.

There may be some that see this and roll their eyes at this coaches professional demise. It's not hard to follow that twisted logic when you think about how coaches are portrayed in movies and most television.

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pUIFWitR9XU&list=UULFd4GfhPDhWJuIE0B3tl7vUw&index=26

Angry, sometimes funny, condescending, emotionally abusive, loud, aggressive and sometimes violent, these movie coaches are revered and quoted often. But this is Hollywood where the ends almost always justify the means.

A few years ago, I was sitting at the dinner table with a husband/wife coaching team in a suburb of Boise, Idaho. During dinner, the husband asked if I had seen a show called, "Ted Lasso" and he pulled up the first episode. However the chat during dinner drowned out the show and it was a few more years until four episodes popped up on an Airbus300 headed overseas. A  handful of episodes on another flight to a coaching clinic in Europe this summer peaked even more interest, but the story lines and characters were fragmented and the show was still a mystery.

However, the final episode of season 3 of "Ted Lasso" was finished last night. Not being a movie or TV critic but one who aspires to help coaches to be better versions of ourselves, the show was like a book you can't put down: bingeable being the current terminology.

Start with this clip and you get the idea of what Ted Lasso is and is not:

He is the ultimate optimist in nearly every situation, despite the personal demons he must overcome during the 3 seasons. He is silly, funny, charming and a 'dad-joke' machine; not at all the kind of coach that is usually portrayed in the movies and TV. 

In his wonderful book "The Culture Code," author Daniel Coyle points to three things that construct a great culture: safety, vulnerability and a common quest. "Ted Lasso" adopts these three  characteristics throughout the incarnations of his futbol team and at first creates uncomfortable toxicity but by the end, the yanking of heartstrings the Hallmark network would envy.

Standing atop the lessons learned during these 34 episodes might deprive you of clean oxygen, but the hike is of eternal value.

In this scene, Lasso recalls a Walt Whitman quote while in the middle of a dart game with a rival club owner. 

Maybe it's just seeing a coach that reads books or can talk to his players without yelling and throwing things. Maybe it's the silly dances that his team rallies around or the way he treats his support staff and colleagues. While in reality we revel in the coach v. coach pre match-up verbal smackfest; TV's Lasso avoids it. Maybe it's the way he relates to each player and staff member, tackles the hard and difficult and is always on the lookout for something to learn.

Parents should pay close attention to the style of coach Lasso is. Even though he is just a streamed character, he is, above all, good for his players and his team and club. He brings passion and joy and humor and empathy. He is an example of what we should all strive to be as coaches; good TO and FOR our players.

At the end of the series, a reporter has written a book about the team, calling it, "The Lasso Way." Ted reads the book and adds this:

In this case, the means justify the end.