![]() ![]() In the movie and in interviews, Rabil is bullish but realistic. The growth since has been rocket-fueled: a multiyear deal with ESPN big-name investors such as NBA superstar Kevin Durant and his boss, billionaire Joe Tsai, owner of the Brooklyn Nets and an excellent new ESPN documentary, Fate of a Sport, streaming now, on Rabil's journey from player to league co-creator. In 2019, Rabil began an incomprehensible double shift, playing in the very league he was running. The PLL ended up buying Major League Lacrosse, a rare case in sports business of the brash newcomer conquering the established league. During the PLL's first season in 2019, the average player salary was $35,000, $27,000 more than the MLL average the previous year, according to CNBC. Players have PLL stock options and health care, everyday perks that were fever-dream material in the MLL. Players own and operate the franchises, which do not have a home base. Launched in 2018, the outdoor lacrosse league represents a radical departure from the long-running Major League Lacrosse. What does being Paul Rabil! entail? The 2008 Johns Hopkins University graduate and two-time collegiate champion is running the PLL with his co-founder and brother, Mike. He tunes out the constant entreaties for his time from boys with husky, authoritative rasps that live in your ears for days. He assumes a pleasant, peace-sign-wielding pose with the ease of turning on a light switch. ![]() Rabil wields a Sharpie like Merlin with a wand. On this September afternoon in Chester, Pennsylvania, fans at the Premier Lacrosse League Championship want to shake his hand, take selfies, and have him sign the occasional lacrosse ball. Imagine a freshly retired Babe Ruth as the commissioner of baseball in 1936. He's a legend in lacrosse, a sport he's pulling to a mainstream audience. Welcome to the second half of Paul Rabil's life. ![]()
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