The latest episode of Ted Lasso Season 4 ended with a tribute to the late Joel Stevens, set to the Wilson Phillips hit song “Hold On”. Outside of the tribute, which read simply, “In memory of Joel Stevens”, there was no further clarity or explanation. It was low-key, tasteful, and surprisingly tender, leading people to wonder who the subject of such a memorial might be. The answer is, I think, directly connected to the very core of Ted Lasso as a character and his namesake show as a project: authentic affection for English grassroots football and the humble, everyday people who make it tick. 

It’s worth mentioning that there has been no official explanation for the tribute or a confirmation from Apple TV about who Joel Stevens was or what his connection to Ted Lasso might have been. But a bit of sleuthing creates a remarkably on-brand picture that fits the show’s tone beautifully, while also speaking to the reason behind its all-encompassing, cross-cultural success. 

According to a Facebook post from August 25, 2025, Joel Stevens was the coach of Burgess Hill Town FC Juniors, a grassroots children’s football team in West Sussex, England. Stevens tragically passed away from cancer, shortly after the team’s manager, Graham George, who also sadly passed away from cancer. The post reads:

Last week, we were heartbroken once more with the passing of Joel Stevens, the team’s coach, following a shock diagnosis of cancer less than a month ago. Joel was a larger-than-life character who wore his heart on his sleeve. His cheeky grin, quick wit, and banter with the boys made him truly special. He was a mentor, a mate, and a coach who instilled a style of fast, fearless football that will always remain part of the team’s DNA. 

Given the timing of the post, this episode of Ted Lasso aired almost exactly on the one-year anniversary of Stevens’s death. Given his association with English football and the loving descriptions of his temperament and importance to the team, the parallels between Stevens and Lasso are immediately obvious. 

When most shows include memorial tributes, they tend to be for people who worked directly on the project in the cast or crew. They tend to be high-profile. But this one is different; it’s paying tribute to someone who was, by all accounts, the real-life Ted Lasso, one of innumerable equivalents upon whose backs the grassroots ecosystem is built. These people are vital to the sport, vital to local communities, and vital to the development — both in terms of their football ability and the skills they need to actually navigate life — of English youth. They’re just as much heroes as the protagonists in TV shows; arguably, they’re much more so, because the rewards are almost never commensurate. 

The Burgess Hill Facebook post summarizes this rather adroitly:

Both Graham and Joel gave so much of themselves to our club, and their legacies will live on through the players, coaches, and families they inspired. Their passion, humour, and love for the game will remain at the core of everything this team does.

“Passion”, “humour”, and “love for the game” are famously underpinning concepts of Ted Lasso. The reason this show has endured for years and become so beloved, especially within football circles, is that it practices what it preaches. In highlighting someone like Joel Stevens, the show is directly paying back into the very communities around which it has built its drama and comedy for four consecutive seasons. There’s something vital about this degree of authenticity. You can’t fake it. Even when the show isn’t firing on all cylinders — and many would argue that Season 4 isn’t — it has never lost this core of love for the game and the people involved in it. 

I must stress again that this is all speculation, and nothing has been confirmed by Apple TV. However, the closing sentiment of the Facebook post kind of gives the game away, I think:

As a club, we are working closely with the team and both families to plan fitting tributes and events to celebrate their lives, their impact, and everything they meant to us. More details will follow in due course, but rest assured, Graham and Joel will forever be part of our club’s story.

As far as fitting tributes go, as a football coach, having an episode of Ted Lasso dedicated to your memory seems to fit the bill rather nicely.