Coach Beard is a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, hidden behind facial hair.
What we know for sure about Brendan Hunt‘s stoic assistant coach on Ted Lasso is that he’s a loyal friend, a voracious reader, and a masterful chess enthusiast who doesn’t even need a board to play. We know he has a turbulent relationship with a woman named Jane. And that’s about it.
The true appeal of Coach Beard is in the negative space he creates: what we don’t know, can’t see, and maybe can’t even imagine about him. There are many hints, but nothing conclusive. He is a man of intrigue in a track suit.
Hunt, who is one of the show’s co-creators, spoke with Vanity Fair to reveal some of his own backstory for the character, including whether “Beard” is truly his name. He also describes “dark times” he believes Beard experienced before he joined up with Ted to work in pro sports.
Those dark times involve the jam band Phish.
Something seems to be building this season with Coach Beard. There’s a lot happening with him on the sidelines, if you’ll forgive the pun. We just found out he is sleeping in the office and there’s talk of drama with him and his girlfriend, Jane. What’s going on?
Brendan Hunt: Um, well, Jane is certainly the main feature of what’s going on with him externally. We can’t get into The Beard too much. We have to be very judicious about what we show because what’s fun about him is how mysterious he is.
Seems like you’re creating this sense that there’s a lot happening beyond the club. There’s a secret life that he lives to the fullest. Maybe too full, sometimes.
Yeah, there’s something going on there. And I think he’s probably had crazier times in his past than he does now. I guess I believe that whatever crazy things you’re getting up to outside of work doesn’t inherently mean that you’re some kind of jerk or anything. Everyone’s going to live differently.
Would you say Coach Beard is a wilder man than his exterior would suggest?
My sort of backstory that I have for him is, I don’t think he’s from Kansas, like Ted, but I do think he’s from central Illinois, like Peoria or something. I went to school in that neck of the woods. So I feel a bit of kinship.
But you do have a full backstory for him?
A little bit. But it’s all just brain canon, you know. Until the writers room sets it down on a sheet of paper and then it gets in front of a camera, it’s all vaporware. But I think what you’re seeing in him that makes you go, “Oh, this guy is just into football”—that’s the central Illinois in him. But that’s also a reminder of one of the lessons of the show, which is don’t read a book by its cover.
When we saw him playing chess without a board and reading various books, he struck me as surprisingly erudite. What else do you imagine about his history, like his origin with Ted Lasso?
I think he met Ted probably in college, wherever they went. But then somewhere along the way, he became a roadie for Phish.
Oh, really?
And that led him to Europe. And then in Europe, he became a roadie for The Chemical Brothers. And then somewhere along the way he just stopped using phones and email, and no one saw him for a real long time.
The lost years. But that path led him back to Ted Lasso and eventually Richmond AFC?
Somehow he and Ted reconnected. Ted maybe helped him turn his life around. Perhaps things had gotten a bit dark for a time. Sports was what originally brought them together, and as much as he loves a good Trey Anastasio guitar solo, he likes watching linemen block as well. So, yeah, he’s some kind of confluence of things.
You think “Illinois Guy” is part of his core?
He is rooted in Midwestern-ness. I know this is such a silly affectation for me to even be worrying about, but that’s part of why I insisted this year that he has wrap-around sunglasses. You know, that’s what a young Midwestern sports loving lad of a certain age would have looked at with adoration.
That’s the style of his people…
His first material desire would have been that pair of glasses, and now he can afford it! Um, so he’s gonna wear those glasses, even though it might be douchebag nomenclature to some people. To him, that’s his uncle. But he’ll still have some poetry and chess for you, as well.
How did you come up with the name Coach Beard? Was it just because he had a beard and you figured people are going to identify him that way anyway?
[Laughs.] I can’t remember when he got named. But it’s a bit similar to Ted Lasso. Jason Sudeikis said an SNL go-to for naming people was: regular first name, noun last name. My noun was Beard.
You mentioned your own unofficial backstory. Does the show plan to reveal more about Coach Beard?
We know where the show is going in so many respects, but Beard is still very much in Choose Your Own Adventure territory. We just haven’t decided if that’s his name, or if that’s just what people call him. We have options and eventually the writers room will make a decision, or we won’t, but yeah, for now he’s just Beard.
His first name hasn’t been spoken yet, right?
It has not.
There is a basketball coach named Chris Beard, so it’s a real name.
Yeah. Chris Beard. You’ve got James Beard,
Right, the legendary culinary writer. Beard on Bread.
Also the drummer for ZZ Top —and the only one without a beard—is named Beard.
Do you remember how the noun “beard” came to be used for his name, or who came up with that?
So me and Jason and Joe Kelly, the other creator of the show, before Bill Lawrence came along, were working with NBC Sports to do this ad campaign. We decided early on that Ted needed to have a foil, someone to be talking to and sharing things with as opposed to just walking around, getting stared at. Coaches like that so often have their lieutenant. And Beard is perfectly content to remain a Lieutenant and be that guy forever.
How did Beard’s personality take shape?
Joe Kelly’s idea that has born considerable fruit, even now, eight years later, was that Beard needs to speak as little as possible, preferably one word at a time, wherever we can, because that’s going to be a fun contrast to play between Ted’s hayseed verbal diarrhea.
That’s a classic comedy pairing, right? Like Groucho and Harpo Marx, Penn & Teller, or Jay and Silent Bob. The motor-mouth guy and the quiet one creating a little bit of tension with that silence and commenting through expressions and reactions.
Obviously, Beard talks a little bit more now than he used to, but still not very much. That’s just fun. And because me and Jason have a bit of a history, that history is present on camera unavoidably every time we’re together. So we have less of a need to verbalize or articulate what that relationship is. A lot of times you can just see it, which is a bit of a cheat code, but we like having it.
There’s something really special about their relationship and their friendship, because so much of Ted Lasso, the show, feels like it’s about masculinity and about a way of being masculine without being, let’s say, an asshole.
The show is trying to get at some stuff about masculinity. But oddly enough, we don’t talk about it as much in regards to Beard and Ted. We’re on this rich version of autopilot where we all in the writers room. Just know that these guys have some unexpected cultural affections.
Such as…
They just love musicals. It’s not curious and strange. They just do. They know their way around a book or two. Ted showing up in the middle of episode one of this season with fingernail polish on, and Beard having no comment on it whatsoever is because it’s not that big a deal to them. You’re right, but we’re not too consciously doing that. If we’re too conscious about it, then it becomes about that as opposed to that just being a layer on our actual job, which is telling the story and cracking wise.
I like that they’re not intimidated by each other, and not trying to impress or one-up each other, or slyly put the other one down. There are years of trust between these two that comes through without anybody having to actually declare that.
Yeah, but there are moments where one disproves of the other in one way or another. Beard has one blow-up with Ted, and [Beard’s life] is not the way Ted would live, but Ted doesn’t judge it. There’s precious little judgment. And only a little bit of curiosity.
Do you think they don’t ask enough about what’s going on with the other? Ted doesn’t push him on his up-and-down relationship with Jane, and Beard looks the other way with Ted’s struggles, too.
Sometimes you know a friend so well, you take for granted, “Oh, they’re just like this, and they’re going to be okay.” Beard misses some stuff that Ted is going through this season. A pretty big thing.
I feel like that’s what’s so intriguing about Beard. The audiences does not know him well, so we watch a little more closely than someone like Ted. The unknowable factor makes him more fascinating. Is part of the goal to keep Beard an eternal mystery?
We might dance a little closer to the borderline on that. But that will always be the tension. We have to keep him close to the vest.
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