Loving the New Normal

How should we respond to adversity? Ted Lasso and the apostle Paul have some advice.

He’s the unlikeliest of folk heroes. Khaki pants. Team jersey. A whistle dangling from his neck. Ned Flanders mustache. A sun visor covering his receding hairline.

He is, of course, Ted Lasso, the character created by Jason Sudeikis that became a runaway success for Apple TV+. Ted is an American college football coach, plucked from obscurity by a wealthy English divorcée who tags him to coach her Premier League football team (in America, we’d call it a soccer team). The problem is, Ted’s never coached that kind of football. He’s reading the rulebook on his flight to England, cramming for the exam he knows is coming: his first meeting with the team.

British sportswriters are underwhelmed by Ted’s introductory press conference. They think Ted’s boss, the team owner, is crazy. It turns out, she is — crazy like a fox. Her secret goal is to run her football franchise into the ground to punish her ex-husband. She recently won the team from...