My plan was to be the very last person to recommend “Ted Lasso” to you all and I do believe I’ve succeeded. I wish I could have been in the pitch meeting… “So, he’s… a saint? How is that funny?” “Trust us.” Tweet by Peter Sagal @petersagal Host of @WaitWait on @NPR. Author of “The Incomplete Book of Running,” from Simon and Schuster, now available at independent bookstores or via link below. Chicago simonandschuster.com/books/The-Inco…

Michele and I just binge-watched Ted Lasso on Apple. Looking at the previews, I didn’t really expect to enjoy it, but we were both captivated. Ted is an American football coach – and a very minor one at that – who is hired to coach a English Premier League football club (and we all know, including Ted, that a football team in England plays soccer). The premise is that Ted is a decent, optimistic, human being and, somehow, during this toxic time, that is enough to make it comforting.

It is a comedy, although it is often more touching than funny, I know that it is a comedy because each episode is only about thirty minutes. Ted Lasso is the kind of program that somehow makes us feel good. I’m not sure why or how, but I do know I went to bed smiling and feeling better and more generally optimistic than I have in weeks.