Spoiler Alert: This article works with cultural memes and identity politics from the most recent episode of Ted Lasso. If you haven\u2019t watched it and you love the show, you may wish to read this article after viewing the episode.<\/em><\/p>\n The wildly popular AppleTV+ show, Ted Lasso, has continued to escalate its identity politics message during season 3. Its most recent episode 9, La Locker Room Aux Folles, has AFC Richmond continue its resurgent winning streak, many thanks to the success of its open football strategy. But in this episode\u2019s featured game, Team Captain Isaac McAdoo and teammate Colin Hughes are as out of sync on the field as they are in real life.<\/p>\n After blowing a big play, as the official called for the half, one fan abusively yells at the team. Since the abusive language was derogatory to same-sex relationships, this triggers Captain McAdoo, who jumps into the stands and physically confronts the fan. McAdoo is issued a red card and ejected from the game.<\/p>\n What triggered Captain McAdoo? The same underlying cause for his tension with team-mate Hughes triggered him. After having seen a private photo on Hughes\u2019 phone in the last episode, Captain McAdoo became aware of teammate Hughes\u2019 secret. He is a homosexual. This new awareness is what has complicated their friendship off the field and now their game-play on the field.<\/p>\n Of course, the team coaches have to address McAdoo\u2019s altercation and ejection from the game before returning to play the second half. In the locker-room, Coach Lasso asked what\u2019s the deal. That\u2019s when McAdoo\u2019s feelings become known. Without betraying Hughes\u2019 secret, McAdoo declares he was advocating for the humanity and dignity of any teammates, who might be homosexuals.<\/p>\n After McAdoo storms out of the locker room to process his feelings, Hughes\u2019 resolves his teammates speculation with his moment. He makes his self known to his teammates. Once his homosexual identity is known, his teammates affirm him saying they don\u2019t care that he is gay.<\/p>\n This is when Coach Lasso interjects with his sage leadership and pivots the language to affirm that, in fact, they all care about Hughes\u2019 identity; his identity does matter to them. Lasso goes on to deliver a parable about a time he didn\u2019t care about the fact that his friend was a devoted Denver Broncos fan. The moral of Lasso\u2019s parable is to be an affirming and caring friend and teammate.<\/p>\n But, as with any good parable, Assistant Coach Roy Kent skillfully frames the centerpiece question of the parable: \u201cWho are the Denver Broncos?\u201d Unlike the Prophet Nathan, who declared to David: \u201cYou are that man,\u201d Coach Lasso lets Kent\u2019s question linger by dismissing the importance of its answer. However, I think it does matter, but let\u2019s go ahead and also let that question linger for a moment.<\/p>\n The second half commences. Even with one player down for the last 45 minutes of official play, AFC Richmond rallies for a come behind 2 over 1 victory, with two assists from Hughes, who has realized his fullest self on the field after making his full self known to his teammates in the locker room.<\/p>\n Coach Roy Kent stands in for Coach Lasso to lead his first post-game press conference and fields the question pertaining to the mid-game altercation, with a moving response, on behalf of the team and Captain McAdoo. The episode closes with McAdoo and Hughes reconciling and then playing a friendly game of football, the global sport, on a gaming system.<\/p>\n But who are the Denver Broncos?<\/p>\n Coach Bill McCartney and Identity Politics in Denver, Circa 1992\/93<\/strong><\/p>\n I think the writers of the show wrote this episode to typify and reimagine events that happened almost exactly 30 years ago in Denver, Colorado. Sure. Like any typology it\u2019s not going to be precise. In fact, it might have been a little bit too on the nose if the writers said that Lasso\u2019s friend was a University of Colorado Buffs fan.<\/p>\n But hear me out.<\/p>\n Coach Bill McCartney took over leadership of the University of Colorado Buffs in 1982 to turn around a losing team and lead them to co-reign with Georgia Tech in 1990 as the NCAA national champions. Okay. That fits the trope of Ted Lasso\u2019s coaching history. But what about identity politics?<\/p>\n A March 1992 LA Times<\/a> article sheds light on this connection:<\/p>\n Bill McCartney, who became a hero for turning around a losing football team at Colorado, is being jeered for using his title and popularity to preach evangelical Christian views against homosexuality.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Coach McCartney not only coached great sports ball, but he was a former Roman Catholic turned evangelical, who in 1989 became a member of the Vineyard Christian Fellowship, located in Longmont, and he founded Promise Keepers ministries in 1990. He then used his famed status as a football coach to lobby for evangelical, moral majority identity politics in Denver, Colorado.<\/p>\n Denver became one of the battlegrounds for gay rights in the early 1990s. Local evangelical laymen and political lobbyists mobilized to resist homosexual activism by forming Colorado for Family Values. These men drafted an amendment, called Amendment 2, intended to restrict gay rights. State legislature passed the amendment in November of 1992.<\/p>\n A January 1993, CT Magazine article<\/a> documents this history:<\/p>\n Colorado has become the site for the latest showdown over homosexual rights. On November 3 Colorado voters narrowly passed the controversial Amendment 2, which prohibits laws protecting homosexuals from discrimination based on sexual orientation. But the firestorm over the amendment shows no sign of dying down.<\/p>\n The Colorado Springs-based Colorado for Family Values, which is led by three Christian laymen, wrote the amendment and successfully placed it on the November ballot through a petition drive that focused on the state\u2019s churches.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n While the article does not say that Coach McCartney is one of those laymen who drafted the amendment, we do know that the now winning coach stepped up as the key public spokesperson and exercised his rights of free-speech on behalf of evangelical-fundamentalists lobbying for the amendment in Denver. He used his platform with the press to publicly condemn homosexuality and homosexual rights.<\/p>\n News about his political activism became widespread through various national news presses, including the Chicago Tribune<\/a>, New York Times<\/a>, and the LA Times<\/a>.<\/p>\n The March 15, 1992, New York Times article begins:<\/p>\n The University of Colorado\u2019s president can walk down the street and scarcely be recognized. The school\u2019s top professors are still more anonymous. But the football coach, Bill McCartney, is famous.<\/p>\n As the man who has built a football powerhouse here, Mr. McCartney\u2019s statements \u2014 about sports or anything else \u2014 have a wide and receptive audience. Mr. McCartney has lately been speaking about homosexuality, which he has called \u201can abomination.\u201d And he has lent his name to a group that seeks to limit gay rights.<\/p>\n His remarks, which have spurred angry protests on campus, raise a thorny question for university administrators. Is Mr. McCartney simply exercising his right to free speech? Or is he using his university post, not to mention his winning football team, to give credence to a political agenda?<\/p>\n At a news conference, Mr. McCartney complained that homosexuals are \u201ca group of people who don\u2019t reproduce yet want to be compared to people who do.\u201d<\/p>\n The coach is serving on the advisory board of Colorado for Family Values, which is petitioning for a state constitutional limit on gay rights.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Coach McCartney\u2019s activism on behalf of family values had short-term gains, but the backlash from the public added to the mounting body of evidence that the moral majority\u2019s political influence was eroding.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/168\/2023\/05\/TedandBill-scaled.jpg\")
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