Lacrosse is a sport built on passion, precision, and community. It’s also a sport that defines service. Live from the Stars and Stripes Classic, Fran Racioppi sat down with Mike Rabil, co-founder and CEO of the Premier Lacrosse League, to highlight the PLL’s partnership with the Green Beret Foundation and explore how the sport of lacrosse is intertwined with American Special Operators.
A remarkable number of America’s Special Operators come from a lacrosse background. The sport builds toughness, discipline, teamwork, and the ability to perform under pressure. The same qualities that define an elite operator and a key reason why so many lacrosse players serve in the military.
Mike shares his vision for building the PLL into the world’s only professional lacrosse organization. Now in its seventh season, the PLL is deeper, faster, and more competitive than ever, supported by partners who believe in the mission and the athletes who make it possible.
Together, the PLL and the Green Beret Foundation are proving that sport can be a force for impact. This partnership honors the athletes, the warriors, and the families who give so much, and it strengthens the connection between two communities built on grit, excellence, and service.
Follow the Jedburgh Podcast and the Green Beret Foundation on social media. Listen on your favorite podcast platform, read on our website, and watch the full video version on YouTube as we show why America must continue to lead from the front, no matter the challenge.
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Mike, the second annual Stars and Stripes Classic. We’re here in Philadelphia, and we’re sitting in the Razor because where else would we have this conversation? Nowhere else. Maybe inside the heli, but that’s it. That’s about it. Thanks for having us back.
Thanks for having me, man. I’m excited. This is authentic to what we’re building and what you guys are building at Jedburgh. We’re just excited to partner with the Green Beret Foundation on building this event. It’s really special for the community, but it’s also special for the guys. Raising awareness about what the Green Berets do, what the army does, and making sure, as a give-back component to the Green Beret Foundation, they’re doing for the Green Berets when they’re active, or they come out of retirement. We’re just excited to be here, put this on again. It started as an idea, and now you’re building it with us, man.
I can’t be more honored to be a part of it. We sat down last year, back in Fairfield, in the lead-up to the first gig. We talked about your vision, your guidance, where you wanted to take the PLL, how this game fell into kind of that whole ethos of building elite talent. I sat down with your brother, Paul, in the game last year and threw him in the back of the truck and talked about what it means to be elite. What does it mean to be the tip of the spear, as we call it, and then obviously from his perspective and the success he’s had in this sport.
Now building, as you said, just building a startup professional sports league. I want to get to the game, but I didn’t want to ask about the PLL. I want to know where it came from over the last year. We talked last year about you just making the announcement that we’re going to have home teams. We’re going to put everybody into a place where they’re going to build a home audience. What will that look like? How’s it been going?
It’s been going great. If you were to say, when you started with this idea of trying to rebuild professional lacrosse eight years ago, we’re in our seventh season, which had an amazing semifinal game where the Water Dogs barely lost to the Atlas. Atlas is going to the championship game in two weeks for the first time ever.
We have the Redwoods playing the Denver Outlaws here in a couple of minutes. In the competition on the field, 50% of our games have been decided by just one goal this year. There’s a ton of parity in the league. We’re continuing to invest in our players, in our fans. We just renewed our media rights deal with ESPN for another five years.
They invested in the league through an equity partner with us. We continue to bring on great partners, like the whole playoffs and championship is sponsored by US Bank. You have all these stakeholders that are really invested in the game. Now the pressure’s on us to make it worthwhile, to make sure we’re continuing to invest in the players. More and more guys are continuing to be full-time, getting paid.
Sitting here in a reality check, sit inside of a razor and looking at a hellion, just talk to General Tovo. I’m like, “I don’t feel allowed. I’m right to be here.” Things are going well, but then you also sell that hunger to really build more, build better. That’s really what we’re focused on, executing through the season and in the off-season. That’s what we really press on the gas.
The level of clay of these athletes is absolutely astounding. When you look at elite athletes, look at other professional sports, these guys are so versatile. They’re so quick. They’re fast. They’re strong. Lacrosse is developing such a well-rounded app. We’re going to see that with our guys who’ve gone out to serve at the elite level of the military. When you look at the recruiting dynamics and what are you seeing from the caliber of player that’s continuing to be developed at the college level that’s then feeding the lead?
I was just watching the game earlier, and I was sitting there, and I was on the sideline, and I was talking to someone. I was like, “These guys are so athletic and so big and so strong and so fast.” Every time I get this close and watch it, I take a step back. Like, “These are the best lacrosse players in the world, but some of the best athletes.”
That’s really the message we wanted to tell. That’s why there are so many tier one operators who were former lacrosse players, Navy SEALs, and Green Berets. The best of the best, a large majority of them were lacrosse players. A lot of the sport transfers over into, you tell me as a former Green Beret, a lot of what you guys have to go through, that it’s an endurance sport, but it’s also a physical sport.
They did run up and down a football field, a lacrosse field, same length, and wear helmets and pads, but then continue to run up and they’re not stopping after 15 seconds, taking a break for 45 seconds. They’re humping it, they’re moving. There’s the skill technique as well. You think about the balance, like you said, to incorporate endurance, strength, physicality, and the hand-eye. Those are things as a tier one operator, you need to be able to run, you need to handle the physicality, you need good hand-eye coordination.
Part of putting this together, we just started seeing, we grew up with a lot of guys who are Navy, being from Maryland. I started to see our friends in the list and then started to become tier one operators. When I was able to meet Charlie, CEO of the Green Beret Foundation, a couple of years ago, he was just like, “Many of our guys are lacrosse players.” Let’s tell this story. Let’s put this together. As you’re saying, let’s talk about the athletes, but then also the tier one operators together, and how lacrosse players are a huge part of that community.
I would say, too, there are a couple of guys who played in the league who are in tier one units now.
Which is incredibly impressive. They might be out here, but we won’t tell them who they are.
One guy has a brother, too. I believe he’s there, but what we’ve seen over the last couple of days from both teams in their practice was two organizations. Green Beret
Foundation, Navy SEAL Foundation. They took this game very seriously. Even though last year the Green Beret foundation was down to buy two for a final score, it was a hard-fought game.
It was a physical game. It was a game that, at the beginning, at least lacked a little skill. They got cleaned up as it went. These guys on both sides left the field last year and said, “I have a commitment to this state, and I’m going to put the time in.” I guess we’ll call it the off-season, but the rest of the year that they’re not playing.
I heard down at Fort Bragg, right?
They are coming together, started recruiting the amount of people who came to us after as we started releasing all of our interviews and said, “Wait, I played at this level. My friend over here.” Dude, where were you three months ago?
The team got young. They had to expand the roster, and they had to make some cuts. Unfortunately, it’s part of playing at the elite level, but it’s gotten after just one year, a lot more hyped.
You can see it in practice. The thing that I’ll say is that when we were with the team last night at dinner, there was a looseness about it. Meaning that they’re serious, they’re focused, but the tension wasn’t there. When you operate at that level, you can’t have fear. You’ve got to be focused. You’ve got to be committed. You’ve got to be ready to go because you have to be free in execution. That’s what we’re going to see in your room.
No doubt. Practice is the payoff for the eventual game. These guys have had a year to think about it. A year to come together under the Green Beret Foundation and a year to come together in the Navy SEAL Foundation. Just because I grew up with more Navy guys, being from Maryland, I fielded calls in March from a couple of guys who were going to play on the Navy side, going through the details of the jersey. I was like, “Listen, foundation is design, champion in PLL fulfill.
You’ve got to talk to the foundation about the design. You guys want the bone frog a different color? All good. Whatever you guys want.” I’m staying out of this, but like the level of detail leading up to not only what the threads are putting on, but the practices have been like, “You guys have been here all week, practice though.” General Tovo was just telling me there have been practices being held and organized down in Fort Bragg because of this game.
That’s one of the things about this game, that the community is actually bigger than we think, and the game means something to people. It’s actually been misbranded and represented in a different direction by society. We’re bringing it back to its roots. It’s an indigenous game created by the native people in North America. It’s a tough game, and it’s a community game. We’re bringing those things back, and we’re just like pumped to talk about not only the tier one operators that love it, but also the foundations that are doing the work, especially the work that you guys are doing.
They’ve still finished. I’ve had guys in the community after what happened this year. I’m getting to know Charlie Ianoco. I’ve made calls to Charlie and was like, “Can you help this guy out? He needs some help? He’s a former ranger, but will you help him?” he was like, “Yeah, I will. Let me make some calls.” He knows the community, the guys that activate.
I didn’t have those relationships before, but that was a lacrosse relationship I had, a guy that needed some help. It was a Ranger for twenty years, and Charles, they would help. Anyway, those things are valuable. We tell those stories not to beat our chest, but just to say that this is real, we’re building this community together, and we’re just excited to be a part of it, man.
There are people of character. When you look around, and you look at the guys who are taking that field tonight, players who are out there to operate at that level. You can have all the physical ability in the world, but you have to be a person that character. You’ve got to have that adaptability, the resiliency, the integrity. When you have those things with the team ability, then you see a product that gets put on that field through your games every single week throughout your season. Also, this game and I’ll go on tonight. That’s going to be on my guy. The air here. How are you feeling about it?
I feel good.
Are you coming back into lacrosse? You played a little lacrosse in high school. Do you feel like this game has drawn you back to the sport a little bit?
Absolutely, 100%. I can relive my Florida. The team has to get younger than I got older.
Do you feel like that correlation I was talking about of what you learned when you played high school lacrosse? Do you think some of that transfers over to being a tier one operator like you were a dream bread?
Athletics teach you a certain level of discipline and resiliency, and adaptability that become critical to your ability to succeed at that level. Whether you become a Green Beret, Navy SEAL, Army Ranger, or Marine Raider, you have to take those skills that are learned through athletics. You’re going to apply those every day.
Speaking of the Raiders and the PJs and the Rangers, some people have been inquiring, “Why is it just the Green Beret Foundation, Navy SEALs that get to compete for
the Starfleet Drive Classic? Those guys want a piece too.” I’m like, “Look, we built it together. We want to open up to all the communities, but we’ll see how that goes.”
They can get one and get in line.
Mike, we’re going to get you back in the game. Just started in there, but I appreciate taking a couple of minutes, hop in one of these things. Next time, we’ve got to get you in one that we put some guns on here. Show me how to ride this thing around, man. Let’s find a desert. Come to San Diego. Ride this thing around the razor.
It could be put to you. Thanks, man.
Thanks for having me, man. Appreciate all you do.
Green Beret Foundation
P.O. Box 25138
New York, NY 10087-5138
Note: Please use USPS mail or priority mail. Do not use FedEx.
Green Beret Foundation
10205 US Hwy 15-501, Unit 26-8
Southern Pines, NC 28387-4301
Call: at: (844) 287-7133
