-You mentioned Joe Kelly. You mentioned Brendan Hunt.
What those two guys have in common with you and I is
we all went over and worked at this theater
Boom Chicago in Amsterdam.
I'm pretty sure that's where all four of us learned to
fall in love with soccer, none more, it should be noted,
than Brendan Hunt, who plays your assistant coach, Beard.
But what was your relationship --
Because you came over a couple years after me.
I went in '98. There was a World Cup going on.
Holland did really well. -Yeah.
-The city came alive, and I was like,
"Oh, I want to be a part of this forever."
What was your in?
-It was initially playing PlayStation, you know,
in the green room, in the shiny there,
that I cajoled everybody to chip in 20 gilders, before the Euro,
so that we could get a PlayStation,
mostly so I could play "FIFA" with Brendan
and "Tony Hawk Pro Skater" alone.
And it was 2000, so it was like, you know,
the main teams were Arsenal and Man U.
Brendan, being a huge Arsenal fan, would take them,
so it was just battles of, like, Henry versus Beckham.
And Brendan is, much like his character,
a fountain of knowledge and enthusiasm and ability
to speak in parallels of metaphor,
and he would explain the game to me as we were going.
So then, I started to map, like -- because he would explain
using the '90s Bulls and the triangle offense,
and I started to understand the tactics of the game
a little bit better and the backstory of the players
and how well they translate that into the "FIFA" game.
And then by the time we did -- once the commercials came up
and the opportunity, I was like,
"Oh, I know exactly who to hire."
Like, you know, or who to bring on, and that's Brendan and Joe.
And then, we would add, like, a little in the contract, like,
"Hey, we also want to be able to come over, you know,
and be given, like, the red carpet treatment."
You know, mostly for Brendan to go see a game at Emirates,
which is such a joy to get to do.
I know you feel the same way,
taking, like, your pops to go see a Steelers game and stuff.
When you get to have these people treat you so well
and your friends and family.
-This has completely upped your exposure level
to international athletes, correct?
Like, you've actually now been recognized by people
who have never seen a single episode of "SNL."
-Oh, 100%.
Yeah, I mean, Thierry Henry
and Tony Parker being one of them.
That was the thing early on. You make the commercials,
and, like, we'd joke about, you know, "Go make a viral video."
You don't do that. Like, you make "Lazy Sunday,"
and then it sets the Internet on fire,
and it introduces people to YouTube.
But, like -- and for the record, I know I wasn't in that.
I know you weren't in that, but -- yeah, right.
-I don't think it -- we were around
when they came up with the idea,
so I do think we deserve a little bit of credit.
-I feel like yeah, absolutely.
And a little of this, if Lorne would --
-Just a little. -Just a taste. Just a taste.
But, yeah, me and our buddy John Glazer
were at the U.S. Open, and I remember we were watching
the tennis match there in Queens, and I look down,
and I see Thierry Henry and Tony Parker,
both of who I know because they're legends.
They like both look, and they're like, "Hey," waving at me
like they're 8-year-olds waving at, you know,
Ronald McDonald or something.
And I'm like, why are they -- I don't know what's going on here.
Maybe they've seen "Hall Pass" a bunch of times or something.
And then, after the match, they come up,
and they're just gushing in their lovely French accents
of how much -- "Ted Lasso.
Oh, my gosh, Ted Lasso."
And I was like, "Wow, this thing --"
And then, Steve Nash was another guy who I'm a huge fan of,
and I think he's just, you know, terrific.
Huge soccer fan. Big Tottenham supporter.
And seeing him at a Jay-Z concert out here in L.A.
Like, he came up to me.
I was like, this is -- this thing has got --
This thing has got reach in ways that I had no way to anticipate.
-We did get to work with some athletes in our days at "SNL."
And I actually just went back and watched the sketch you did
with LeBron because I thought the magic moment
that I'm going to ask you about had actually happened on-air
and they cut away, but it was dress or rehearsal.
-It wasn't even dress. It was rehearsal.
It was, like, either Thursday or Friday rehearsal, yeah.
-But I want you to know that I also remembered it.
-You do? Okay. -Yes.
-That's good because, you know, you feel like you're gonna go --
-Now, I might remember it because you told everybody
like multiple times after it happened.
-I tell it a lot. I tell it a lot.
That's what I've learned from our president.
You just say the same thing over and over.
Some segment of the population will remember, but...
-So share your LeBron story.
-Well, the whole sketch was it was this thing that
Bill Hader and I used to do where I would play, like,
a hothead sort of like stagehand.
Like, it was a boom mike operator
with Julia Louis-Dreyfus, and with LeBron,
I was like the guy handing him his props,
and he's doing a commercial.
And I eventually get to a place where I just challenge
LeBron James as basically myself to one-on-one, and he --
you know, he scores on me very easily.
He hits me with an elbow.
I pop up with blood all over my face.
And then, the way the sketch ends, I think the term
we would use at "SNL" is "rave out,"
where I would then get the ball with blood all over my face
and then try to take him to the hole again as the crowd,
you know, claps hopefully.
And so, at rehearsal, you know,
you run through it usually like three times.
And the very first time we did it, I went down,
and the hoop was probably, you know,
8 1/2 feet or something like that.
I went down the left side.
I went up, you know, like that, and reversed it
and came underneath and kissed it off the glass
with a little spin, and it went in.
And all the camera guys, everybody on the set
were like, "Whoa!"
I'm pretty sure Maverick, who, you know,
is LeBron's, you know, right-hand man, was there too.
I was just like, "Oh, snap."
And LeBron came over and gave me a little love.
And I was like, "Okay, great."
And I beelined it to the control room
because we film all those things,
and as a writer and as an actor, you get to watch the shots
and see what works and what doesn't.
And I quickly got a DVD of it burned and went to go watch it,
and you see me go to the hole.
It fades to black as the sketches do in rehearsal,
but you hear the audio of, like, the crowd going "Ah!"
Like that.
And that's it. It only exists through oral tradition.
So thank you for allowing me to spread this lie continuously.
-Of course. Not a lie.
-It really happened. -In my head, I saw it happen.
So maybe I was on the floor for it, or maybe you just tell
a story that has great visual details to it.
-Me and Garrison Keillor.
[ Laughter ]
-Hey, congrats on the show, buddy.
-Thank you.
-It's always a delight to see you.
-Likewise.
-Hopefully back in the city soon.
-Yeah. We'll get the kids together and have them do
some improv and, you know, all that stuff. Right?
From six feet distance, of course.
-Alright, be well, buddy.