The season finale of “Ted Lasso” drops tonight, with lots of drama and conflict to resolve. Last week, Golden State Warriors head coach Steve Kerr dropped an interesting nugget during media day: that his son had worked in the show’s writers’ room. The Athletic caught up with Matthew Kerr to talk about his experience working on the show and the lessons an all-too-cynical sports industry could stand to learn from a show about a coach with idealism at its (and his) heart.

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When did you know you wanted to get into TV?

I went to USC film school for screenwriting specifically, and I had an emphasis in comedy TV writing. But I have always wanted to do that, honestly, just like ever since I was little. I kind of couched myself in front of the TV for hours on end every single day, and I really just knew forever that I wanted to write for it, specifically, since I was like 6 years old. I would watch “The Simpsons” and just be like, “One day, I want to do that.”

Did you ever want to be in front of the camera?

I liked acting and stuff as well, and I still love performing. I did improv in college and stuff. But I mean, COVID kind of happened and I haven’t had a chance to perform, but I do like it. I don’t think I’m very good at it, but I’ll get an acting coach or something.

If you think you’re good at improv, you’re probably bad at improv.

(Laughs.) Right, exactly.

You started working on “Ted Lasso” as a writing assistant on Season 2. How did you get involved with the show?

It was the least universal experience of all time. I had known Jason Sudeikis throughout college, and he had sent me books, and we had kind of kept in contact after meeting, and he was just incredibly friendly. And we’d exchange letters sometimes and whatever else. That sounds like we’re in the Victorian era, but it’s true. And then it really was kind of a blessing that he just kind of called me up one day and said, “Hey, do you want to work on this show for the second season? The first season hasn’t come out yet, probably nothing out of it. It’s this cool show.” And I was like, “Yeah, absolutely, of course.” And then the first season aired while we were in the room for Season 2, and then it kind of became this thing that everyone started watching. And that was a really cool feeling because I was just like — I’ve felt very fortunate to be along for the ride and have the ride be pretty damn exciting.

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How did you come to meet Jason?

He was at a Warriors-Nets game in Brooklyn. That was like 2016 or so.

So when you started working on the second season, had you seen the show?

They had given us screeners ahead of time, and I loved it. I was like, “I love this,” but it’s so hard to tell whether something will find an audience or not. And so when I was watching it, I was totally blown away and became a fan of it myself, which is the best thing I could ask for. But it was cool once it came out because then you kind of get more of a sense of how the world receives it, and that’s just an exciting feeling that never happened to me before. And I’m sure it hasn’t happened to a lot of writers that way, so it was cool.

When you’re working on the second season, nobody outside the show has seen it yet. Did you expect it to become this phenomenon?

I think I just have no context for anything like that, so in my head I was like, “I love this,” but I’m sure it could have easily flown under the radar, as so many great shows do. I definitely did not expect it to become this thing, but I also just had no understanding of how a lot of this industry works. But it was a very cool feeling.

You obviously grew up in a professional sports environment. Are you a sports fan?

I’m not at all a sports person — that’s important to note. My knowledge of sports is limited, which actually made being on “Ted Lasso” really fun, because I think a lot of the people in the room are like that as well, where they’re more interested in the humanities side of sports and sort of how relationships are built or fall apart. For me, that was the most exciting thing because I’d kind of seen glimpses of that throughout my childhood and my life, and so that was definitely enticing to me.

So you join the show, and obviously Jason knows you’re the son of an NBA player and coach. When you go into that writers’ room, does anybody else know about your background?

I didn’t talk — I don’t really talk about it until it comes up somehow. And usually I’m not the first one to bring it up. But my dad, we were on Zoom, and I was in my room and he came in the doors behind me to ask for a pair of headphones while I was at work. And I was like, “Get out! Don’t bother me!” And then I gave him a pair of headphones and was like, “Scram!” And then people recognized him via Zoom. So I was like, “Well, that’s the end of that.” But yeah, it’s fun to talk about once it is sort of brought up or whatever. Like, it’s never at the forefront of my mind when I’m working or anything, but it does kind of give me room to talk about sports experiences from my own perspective.

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So dads Zoom-bombing is just a really universal thing.

Yes. And he is the king of it. (Laughs.)

In your capacity on the show, what does a writing assistant do?

I essentially transcribe notes for the writers, the real writers. It’s being able to document their conversations and thread their ideas. It’s definitely organizational much more than anything. And it’s a lot of communicating between branches of the show, be it production to writing stuff like that.

So you have kind of a front-row seat to the creative process.

Oh, absolutely, yeah. It’s fun to watch every idea form, and so many ideas form from the stupidest stories you’ve ever heard but can’t stop laughing at and then become something totally applicable to the show. Which is, for me, the most exciting part is being able to see something on screen and be able to trace that idea back to one anecdote like a week in that then just kind of kept being referenced over time. And I think a lot of the writing room is just inside jokes, too, which is great. So it was fun being able to just kind of look and see what were inside jokes and what weren’t. I like that part a lot.

I was having this conversation with one of my friends — she and her wife watch the show together every week. And my friend is a sports writer and her wife is just not a sports person. And there are so many quick sports references that could just pass you by if you’re not really paying attention or not really into sports, and the show is also just so rapid-fire with its meta pop culture references and all of that. I think the one she mentioned was when Ted says, “Exactamundo, Dikembe Mutombo,” and it just flew over her wife’s head.

I did not understand the Allen Iverson speech in the first season. I thought it was funny when it was happening, but I didn’t understand it was a reference to a very popular piece of sports history. And then only upon rewatching it with my dad and my brother — and they were dying laughing — was I like, “Oh, this is a sports reference that I will need explained to me.”

You said there were people who work on the show who aren’t sports fans — who are the people on the show who are?

Brendan Hunt, who plays Coach Beard, is a huge soccer fan, and he’s kind of the football guru of the whole group. Any time somebody is writing a football scene, they’ll kind of ask for the details, especially the people who don’t know much about sports.

So there are sports fans on the show.

Oh, definitely. But I think my whole — as horrible as this sounds — so much of my life has been learning to kind of tune out sports references. Sometimes when it’s talked about, my mind goes a little blank, just because it’s such a foreign language to me, and it still is.

I mean, it’s something that you’ve been immersed in your whole life.

Yeah. I think it’s probably offensive that I have not retained as much sports knowledge as I’ve been afforded. I really should check my privilege, as they say, and study up.

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Well, it’s overexposure to something that you’re not necessarily interested in. I think that’s understandable.

Yeah, I mean, I’m along for the ride. I am a bandwagon fan — aka when (the Warriors are) doing really well, I love supporting, I love joining the crowds.

OK, I do have to ask: Who wrote the Kyrie Irving joke? I quite literally spit out my water when I first watched that, and everyone I’ve watched it with since has just died laughing.

I’m gonna give Jason credit for that one. I’m going to give him credit, but I could be wrong — it could have also been Joe (Kelly) or Brendan. That sounds like a Joe or Brendan or Jason joke.

As someone who did grow up in a professional sports environment, whether or not you were a sports fan, do you see parallels between this fictional “Ted Lasso” universe and the real world you experienced?

Absolutely. I think something that “Ted Lasso” does really well that I immediately gripped onto is that relationship between all the coaches and that sort of rapport and just getting the understanding of the players on that level. The players versus coaches dynamic, for me, has been the most prescient one. It’s kind of two different social settings. I think the coaching stuff is really cool because you have to have that mindset to manage personalities. And so for me, going into the coach’s office, my dad’s office, after games and just on my phone not really listening, but I do get that sense of: “What are we going to do to put our heads together and apply ourselves the most in the next game?” And also there’s a lot of personality management, and I think that is what coaching is, that’s what directing is.

It’s kind of bringing out the best in people via methods personally resonant but also perhaps unconventional and always trying something new with a player — that I think the show represents really well. And you know, my dad will come home and, like, just dinnertime talk or whatever it will be, you know, talk about a player. Again, I’m never participating. But I do think that sort of thing was cool to watch on screen because I was like, “Oh, I’ve overheard some of these conversations before.” I felt like a fly on the wall in both settings.

What are some of the differences between “Ted Lasso” and the real world?

I mean, I’m sure my dad wouldn’t do Led Tasso, ever. Probably wouldn’t go apeshit on the court during practice. But I think that’s a testament to how great the show is, is that it takes those kind of tenets that are key to coaching as a whole and just heightening them comedically, and doing it in a really fun, kind of absurdist way. I would say, perhaps the sports world that I know, that I grew up with, is much more boring than the sports world from “Ted Lasso.”

In my review of Season 2, I wrote about how hyper-idealized this world is, especially when it comes to locker room culture and positive reinforcement from coaches and things like that. Is that on purpose? Is that something the people who work on the show are aware of — how different that is from a lot of other locker room realities?

Yeah, that’s a really good question. I had not thought about that before, but that makes a lot of sense. That’s a pretty core attitude of the show is that sort of idealized version and the kindness factor. Perhaps it might not replicate directly in some sports settings.

Like in the real world, the owner of a team isn’t going to drop a major sponsor because of ethical considerations by a player. And what I wrote was that’s not reality, but the show kind of makes us ask, well, why couldn’t that be reality someday?

I do think that what you just said is pretty key to the show. Why couldn’t this happen, and that version of hope. And the beauty of the show is that it is so kind and earnest, and the characters are so authentic. And, well, maybe we haven’t seen that, or certain degrees of that, reflected in certain sports arenas. Maybe more owners should watch “Ted Lasso” is what I’m saying. Who knows? Maybe it’ll be playing in every locker room somewhere, if that’s how locker rooms work.

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You talk about earnestness, and one of the things that also really strikes me is that, I mean, this show could be corny as shit. It very easily could be saccharine, it could be just too much for a lot of people — and it’s not. Why do you think that is? How does the show avoid being too purple and sugary?

I think because they just address — if the show had no conflict, it would be hard. (Laughs.) Those sweet moments are so earned because there’s so much happening beneath the shiny exterior of a lot of these characters, and Ted, specifically, which is why I love his journey so much this season. Because so much of that facade, I mean, there’s truth to the facade, but it is being chipped away slowly to kind of reveal these personal traumas about himself. I thought that was a really brilliant choice on Jason and Bill (Lawrence) and Joe and Brendan’s.

It does feel like a commentary on TV, as well. You have the sort of happy sitcoms where the characters don’t really grow or change or whatever. I think the reason why it avoids being so saccharine is because there is truth to all the characters, even if they are idealized, even if they are heightened versions of real people. And I think that they succeed with that by showing those cracks, and that’s all it is. I think those are my favorite parts of the whole show: when people are not acting like the ideal versions. Because also, there is so much of Season 1 where people love his character and what he represents and that giddy, chipper version, and of course it’s so lovable. And you still root for him when he is that way, but then when the cracks start to show, you’re even more intrigued. And I think every quality like that, every moment that could be saccharine, it’s very true to the characters.

One of the things I also love about the show — I wrote about the parallel between “Ted Lasso” and the “Magic Mike” franchise. And that’s gonna make sense in a second, I promise. 

Okay, I love “Magic Mike,” so I’m with you.

So, both of them depict positive masculinity: men being vulnerable; men having really healthy, platonic friendships, which we don’t see a lot; fully-formed female characters from the get-go; men and women just having platonic friendships having “girl talk.” Is that a conscious thing from the writers, the positive portrayal of men and masculinity?

Absolutely. That’s talked about a lot and always gets brought up. It’s so important to turn away from the tropes that we’re so used to seeing on television, like women being pitted against each other. That story between Keeley and Rebecca in the first season could have been a season-long, dragged-out thing of “How am I going to forgive you again?” But I think that’s so much of the beauty of the show is that it tends to divert from those expected conflicts, particularly when it comes to men acting toxic with each other and women being pitted against each other, which we’ve seen and they’re tired tropes. It’s part of what makes the show so refreshing, and I would say it’s absolutely conscious.

An overarching theme throughout this season has been fatherhood and the relationships between fathers and sons, whether it’s Jamie and his dad or Ted and his son, but also Ted and his dad being the big reveal. These are good, bad, everything in between. Working on this season, has it caused you to reflect on your own relationship with your dad?

Um … no? (Laughs.) Truly, no, but now that you’re saying that, maybe I should. I think it would be really easy to reflect much more deeply if I had something to complain about. But he’s just always been so supportive and lovely that, if anything, you know, some of the more fraught relationships between fathers and sons on this show, I’ve definitely thought about how fortunate I am over everything. That he is a supportive guy who lets me, you know — he didn’t want me to take over the family business of basketball, but also very accepting of everything I’ve done. He’s always been incredibly supportive, and of my sexuality, and he’s been open about social issues. I think if we had any fundamental disagreements, it would be much more grounds for deep reflection. But I just, like, love him and he has always been just an embodiment of that.

(Photo courtesy of Apple)