Jamie Tartt

Character
Name:	Jamie Tartt
Occupation:	Professional Footballer
Relationships:	past Keeley Jones/Jamie Tartt
Fandom:	Ted Lasso
Other:
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Jamie Tartt is one of the main characters in the TV series Ted Lasso and one of the most popular characters within the fandom. Within fanworks, he is a popular target for whump and angst fics, as well as being one half of the second post popular ship for the fandom on Archive of Our Own, the achillean pairing of Roy Kent/Jamie Tartt.

Fandom

Examples Wanted: Editors are encouraged to add more examples or a wider variety of examples.

Common Tropes and Storylines

• Trauma and PTSD - Canonically, and since his childhood, Jamie was abused by his father. While the impact of this was explored to some extent during the show, many fans felt that the abuse Jamie experienced wasn't taken as seriously or handled as sensitively by the show's writing as it could have been, and explore the topic through fan writing.
• Hurt/Comfort and Whump - Jamie is a common character for hurt/comfort or whump works within the fandom, and can be something of the fandom's woobie. Jamie Tartt Needs a Hug is one of the most popular tags for his character on Archive of Our Own.

Fanon and Fandom Debates

Bisexual Jamie Tartt - Jamie is often written in fanworks as bisexual and some fans have theorised that there were suggestions during the show that this was written into his character.

• In a season one episode when Jamie and Roy still have an antagonistic relationship, there is a scene where Jamie unbuttons his blazer (he is not wearing anything underneath it) while starting very intently at Roy.
• During a post-episode interview in character, Jamie says Coach Beard isn't his type because his beard is too scratchy. No other comment is given, leading to some fans suggesting that Coach Beard being a man isn't a reason why he wouldn't be Jamie's type.
• When Roy and Keeley go with Jamie to his mum's home in Manchester, when they wait in Jamie's childhood room, they see that he has a post of each of them, side-by-side, up on the wall. Some fans at the time thought this was a hint that a poly relationship between the three might be endgame, others felt it was a hint to Jamie's bisexuality, and others felt it was just his favourite footballer and a model he found attractive. However, Apple TV posted a screengrab of the two posters with with the hashtag #BiVisibilityDay, which prompted discussion about whether it was further confirmation of Jamie's bisexuality, a form of queerbaiting, or something else.
• In an episode which was focused on Colin Hughes and homophobia in football, when it was suggested by Coach Beard that statistically there were other players on the team who were gay, many of the players looked at Jamie. Some fans took this as further indication that Jamie was written to be bisexual.

Pairings

Jamie is most often paired in fanworks with his ex-teammate and current coach/friend Roy Kent, with whom he had an adversarial relationship throughout much of the series before the pair undertook something of a canonical enemies to friends arc. Roy Kent/Jamie Tartt is the second most popular pairing on AO3 and is the most popular achillean pairing in the fandom as of November 2024.

Canonically, Jamie had a short-lived romantic relationship with Keeley Jones, which ended in the 4th episode of season one when Keeley broke up with him. The pair reconciled as friends later in the season. Despite being canonical, the Keeley Jones/Jamie Tartt pairing as a standalone is relatively uncommon, though it is more frequently explored through Jamie's second most popular ship on AO3, the poly ship of Keeley Jones/Roy Kent/Jamie Tartt.

Jamie is also paired with his Richmond teammates in some fanworks, one of the most popular pairings for this is Dani Rojas/Jamie Tartt.

Reactions, Commentary and Analysis by Fans

Beard After Hours

The episode 'Beard After Hours' focused on the character of Coach Beard and what he did after a game in the previous episode. It was an episode very different to the tone and structure of other episodes in the series, which led to mixed responses from fans. However, during the episode, Beard encounters James Tartt Senior (Jamie's father), who is antagonistic and violent towards him, attempting to attack him with a tire iron. Some fans analysed Tartt Senior's behaviour in the episode, and how Beard saw his violence, as a window to the violence committed against Jamie when he was younger.

Actually I will say this in regards to Beard, Wembley, and James Tartt Sr

I think Beard After Hours really shows how much the tone of Ted Lasso is seen through framing lens of Ted himself. Even if Ted says the story wasn’t really about him, the thematic weight of the show is absolutely about Ted. And Beard After Hours may be a crazy hallucinatory version in its self, but it’s still basically our only glance into this world when it’s not actively being Ted’s World.

And i think it being Ted’s World is why at Wembley, we only see the implication of violence. It’s always been the undercurrent when Jamie tells people about his dad - that he pushed him to dominate, that he’s a dick - but in that locker room scene? Man. Despite the show avoiding using the word ‘abuse’, everything from the acting to the staging to the dialogue fucking SCREAMS the impending threat of immediate violence from the top of the scene onwards.

I don’t think I have ever seen anyone disagree on the reading of that scene. The way Jamie tells him ‘don’t talk to me like that’ — we all agree that that’s something he learned from Dr Sharon. We are all in agreement, after watching him punch his dad, that it was the first time he’s ever fought back. And we all believe it, that when James got up saying ‘you can have that one for free’ that the threat was immediate and very real.

But before it can reach that point it’s cut off. Beard pulls James away. It’s a tense, hard scene to watch, but the actual violence shown is very minimal.

And then we get to Beard After Hours, where James has followed Beard out of Ted’s world, and we see the actual violence that just as easily could’ve taken place, and likely has before, in a world where Ted Lasso was not the lens with which we viewed things.

jamiesfootball, Tumblr 

Beard After Hours was such a horrific and enlightening glimpse into how violent and scary James can really be. The way he said "goodnight, son" before trying to bash Beard's skull in with a tire iron actually gave me chills. It's terrifying that he's capable of murder regardless, but the implication that he was thinking about killing Jamie is just. Sick

We too easily gloss over how SCARED Jamie is of James, also. It's not like he just thinks he's a dick or a bully, he's ACTIVELY terrified of him. In Mom City, he describes James as "fucking terrifying" and says it "really freaks him out" that he can't see him in the stands. James isn't just an asshole, he's a very real and present threat to Jamie's safety, and Jamie fully knows that.

toxicroyjamie, Tumblr 

Example Fanworks

Examples Wanted: Editors are encouraged to add more examples or a wider variety of examples.

Meta

• ‘Ted Lasso’ lacks queer characters, but the show may be hiding them in plain sight, Subjectify Media. 2 October 2022., ^{Archived on 23 February 2025} - A post from before the show's final season which explored which characters might be canonically queer; including a section on Jamie Tartt.

Fan Resources, Links, and Further Reading

• Jamie Tartt tag at Archive of our Own
• Jamie Tartt tag at Tumblr