Duty is a Weapon that Does Not Break

The Merger

Note: this piece also appears on Inside Lacrosse; this is an unedited version of that article.

I didn’t think it would happen.

Scratch that - I never thought it would happen. 

Not one month ago, I stumbled upon a phrase that I told myself to memorize because it perfectly summed up the answer to the question I get asked most often. 

That question is: “Why do you care about pro lacrosse so much?” 

The phrase is: “Duty is a weapon that does not break.” (Thanks, Kieron Gillen).

Premier Lacrosse League has absorbed Major League Lacrosse. It is being framed as a new beginning more than an end. But in reality, this is the end - at the very least of an era - of professional lacrosse as we knew it. We all should have seen it coming after the hazy ending of the MLL season that saw the Connecticut Hammerheads and the Chesapeake Bayhawks forfeit their playoff positions leading to a default championship game between the Boston Cannons and the Denver Outlaws. That’s not to take away from the resulting championship game or the teams but in terms of ending a critical campaign…that’s not a conclusion that reads as a position of strength. 

Conversely, the PLL’s bubble campaign was - by almost any metric - successful. No players contracted the virus there, the games were of high quality, and [an important] gambling initiative was successfully launched. Whatever your bias may be, you cannot deny that one league was in a better position than the other. Ultimately is that what led to this decision? It was certainly a factor, but a more important aspect that cannot be denied is the impact of the worldwide pandemic on sports as a whole. No sport has escaped the impact - financial or otherwise - of COVID-19. I’m sure you’re sick of hearing and reading about it, but it’s true. It remains ever-present at the forefront of rational thought just as eating, sleeping, and breathing.

That doesn’t mean that the MLL is a casualty of this overwhelmingly fraught period in time. The league had a plan, they implemented that plan and it did not succeed. The consequences of that are now that the MLL no longer exists as it once did for twenty years. That is sad. Players and coaches went to sleep and woke up without jobs, finding out their misfortune via social media. Which, if I’m being honest, is disgusting…and ultimately unsurprising.

The present future of professional lacrosse is being (re)written as you read this. The Boston Cannons - or Cannons LC - are now a PLL team. The Denver Outlaws, The Chesapeake Bayahwks, The Connecticut Hammerheads, The Philadelphia Barrage, The New York Lizards, The Atlanta Blaze, The Ohio Machine, The Charlotte Hounds, The Florida Launch, The Hamilton Nationals, The San Francisco Dragons, The Los Angeles Riptide, and The New Jersey Pride are gone.

Forever?

No...just for the moment. (And probably available in t-shirt form very, very soon.) 

As tempting as it may be this, of all times, is not the time to dwell on loss; to wallow is folly. There are greater factors affecting our world and our lives. It would be easy to pick apart decisions and place blame on people and entities and thrash about in a kiddie pool of liquid failure. That doesn’t blunt the impact on the loss of those who depended on the MLL for anything from entertainment to jobs. Major League Lacrosse ends not with a bang, but a whimper; their last consolation being the surrendering of their last champion.

Players will move on to new teams, coaches will [hopefully] find new roles where their talents are needed, and fans will choose to follow or depart. The cycle starts anew, the mission remains the same. The greatest victory is one that which requires no battle. 
The war is over.
The PLL has won.  
Long live pro lacrosse.