Be curious, not judgmental
How the Ted Lasso darts scene led to a new writing endeavor
Ted Lasso’s lesson on being inquisitive
One of the great moments from the show Ted Lasso is the darts scene. Ted gets into a game of darts at a local bar to save his boss Rebecca from a string of demeaning owner’s box appearances with her ex-husband Rupert.
Everyone in the bar, including Rebecca, sees Lasso as a dim-witted American hillbilly. In fact, their nickname for him is Wanker (a very rude British term). Ted plays into that mistaken viewpoint to get Rupert to offer the darts game wager. Lasso is actually a master at playing darts, so this ruse allows Ted to show the locals that he’s much smarter and savvier than they think he is.
As usual, Ted employs folksy storytelling to illustrate this message. He invokes the famous advice that says, “Be curious, not judgmental” (which he wrongly attributes to Walt Whitman, but let’s not let the facts get in the way of Lasso’s story).
In that moment, Ted was admonishing a bully, and by proxy everyone in the bar, for taking him at face value and not being curious as to if there was more to him. In pure Lasso form, there was a secondary message that was even more important - he was imploring them to open their minds to curiosity.
Ted wanted them to relish the magic of inquiry. To see the value in desiring to know more. Lasso knew to be blindly judgmental is to miss the opportunity to gain in-depth knowledge on any subject. He aimed for them to take him seriously, but even more importantly Lasso wanted them to use their intellectual prowess to access a larger world.
New vehicle to power curiosity
When I first saw that darts scene, it served as a wake up call.
I had that insatiably curious mindset in 2003 when I quit my job and started a football writing career despite having no formal training in football or writing. Not a day went by that I wasn’t trying to learn more about this endlessly entertaining sport. I knew the only way to satiate that desire was by turning that football passion into a full-time career.
That hasn’t changed in the 20+ years since then, but over the past few years I’ve gone from writing NFL-centric content all the time to writing it only in certain windows. There are many reasons for this change, including ESPN de-emphasizing written content, my subsequent layoff from ESPN in 2019, the pandemic and taking on other types of work such as SEO articles.
The wake up call made it clear that a shift back towards writing NFL content all year long is an absolute necessity. It was a reminder that my inquisitiveness is not being fully satiated because my interests in this sport go far beyond in-season fantasy football and prognostication articles.
There is so much more to learn. Play calling details. New types of metric analysis. Historical research (we’ve got access to more classic coaching film footage today than we’ve ever had access to). Sharing insights from great books and/or interesting videos. Tapping into some of the brightest minds in the industry via interviews. The list of possibilities is endless. This Substack is dedicated to the pursuit of this knowledge and more.
Here’s the game plan
Now that we’ve established the parameters of what this Substack will be about, let’s dive into some game plan specifics.
I will publish two articles every week. During the postseason, that will include an early week review and a late week preview of that week’s contests.
There will be 3-4 floating articles per month. There may be more posts than this at certain times (free agency being one of them).
The chat room will be active. The specific dates/times for the chat room are TBD at the moment. The vision here is to use them in conjunction with game previews and reviews during the season and at various times in the offseason.
There will be a monthly Ask Me Anything article.
Free subscribers will get access to one post per week and some of the floating articles.
Paid subscribers get access to all posts, archived posts and the chat room.
Join me on this journey
I’ve run into so many readers over the years who have the curious mind that Lasso was referring to. If you are one of those people, this is a Substack you’ll want to subscribe to.
Let’s have some fun finding out more about this great sport. This ought to be a blast!
Photo of the Day
Long-time TFS followers will remember Mrs. Scientist. She’s the one who made all of this possible back in the day (how many wives would tell their husbands yes when it comes to pursuing a crazy dream like this?).
She’s starting to pursue her own dream of being a professional photographer. She was an amateur photographer for years but then got away from it for a time while raising our two sons.
I’m proud as heck to say that’s she’s not missing a beat getting back up to speed here. She’s started a new website that I’ll be sharing pictures from on a regular basis. Today’s photo is a young buck that we saw at Sylvan Lake Park in Sanford, FL.
If you want to see more of her photos, check out her gallery at Flash Art Photography.