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 i sat down with mike rabel co-founder and ceo of the premier lacrosse league to highlight the pls partnership with the green beret foundation and explore how the sport of lacrosse is intertwined with american special operations 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 leading 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 Jedberg 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 you why America must continue to lead from the front, no matter the challenge. Mike, second annual Stars and Stripes Classic. We're here in Philadelphia and we're sitting in the Razor because, I mean, where else would we have this conversation? Nowhere else. Maybe inside the heli, but that's it. That's about it. So thanks for having us back. Thanks for having me, man. I'm excited. This is authentic to what we're building, what you guys are building at Jedberg. And we're just excited to partner with the Green Beret Foundation on building this event. You know, it's really special for the community, but it's also special for the guys. And then raising awareness about what the Green Berets do, what the Army does. And then, you know, making sure there's a give back component to the Green Beret Foundation, the work they're doing for the Green Berets when they're active or they come out of retirement. So we're just excited to be here and put this on again. You know, it started as an idea and now you're building it with us, man. I mean, I can't be more honored to be a part of it. We sat down last year back in Fairfield. Yep. In the lead up to the first gig. Yep. And 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. Sat down with your brother, Paul, in the game last year and threw him in the back of the truck and talked about what does it mean to be elite? What does it mean to be the tip of the spear, you know, as we call it? And then obviously from his perspective and the success he's had in this sport and now building, as you said, just building a startup professional sports league. I want to get to the game, but I know what it has about the PLL. I want to know where's it come over the last year. We talked last year about, you know, you just kind of making the announcement that we're going to have home teams. We're going to put everybody into a place that they're going to build a home audience. What that will look like. How's it been going? Yeah, it's been going great. I think if you were to say, hey, when you started with this idea of trying to rebuild professional lacrosse eight years ago, we're in our seventh season. We just had an amazing semifinal game where the Waterdogs barely lost to the Atlas. Atlas is going to the championship game in two weeks since September 14 for the first time ever And then we have the Redwoods playing the Denver Outlaws here in a couple minutes The competition on the field, 50% of our games have been decided by just one goal this year. So there's a ton of parity in the league. We're continuing to invest into our players, into our fans. And then we just renewed our media rights deal with ESPN for another five years. They invested in the league. They're an equity partner with us. We continue to bring on great partners like the whole playoffs and championships is sponsored by U.S. Bank. So you have all these stakeholders that are really invested in the game, but 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. And then, you know, sitting here in a reality check, you know, sitting inside of a Razor, I'm looking at a heli and just talk to General Tovo. I'm like, I don't feel a lot and I'm right to be here. And so I think things are going well, but then you also sell that hunger to really build more, build better. And that's really what we're focused on right now, executing through the season and in the offseason, that's where we really press on the gas. The level of clay of these athletes is absolutely astounding. Right. I mean, 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. And lacrosse is, I think, developing such well-rounded athletes. Totally. And we're seeing that. We're going to see that tonight with our guys who've gone in. now to serve at the elite level in the military. But when you look at the recruiting dynamics, what are you seeing from the caliber of player that's continuing to be developed at the college level that's then feeding the elite? I was just watching the game earlier and I was sitting there 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'm like, I take a step back. I'm like, these are the best lacrosse players in the world, but some of the best athletes. And I think that's really the message we wanted to tell. And that's why there's so many tier one operators who were former lacrosse players, Navy SEALs and Green Berets. Like the best of the best, a large majority of them were lacrosse players. And I think a lot of the sport transfers over into, I mean, you tell me as a former Green Beret, a lot of what you guys have to go through. It's an endurance sport, but it's also a physical sport, right? They have to 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 30 seconds, after 15 seconds, taking a break for 45 seconds. They're humping it. They're moving. And then there's the skill technique as well. And so you think about the balance, like you said, of to incorporate endurance, strength, physicality, and the hand-eye. I mean, those are things as a tier one operator, you need to be able to run. You need to handle the physicality. You need to have good hand-eye coordination. And so part of putting this together, we just started seeing, you know, we grew up with a lot of guys who are Navy, being from Maryland, started to see our friends enlist and then start to become tier one operators. And then when I was able to meet Charlie, CEO of the Green Beret Foundation a couple of years ago, he was just like, so many of our guys are lacrosse players. Like, let's tell this story. Let's put this together. Like 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. A lot of guys who I would say too, there are a couple of guys who played in the league I think Yeah Who are in tier one units Yeah Now Yeah Which is incredibly impressive They might be out here today but we won tell them who they are One guy has a brother too Yep Who I believe is 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, he took this game very seriously. Oh my God. Go seriously. Even though last year, the Breen Beret Foundation was down to by two. For a final score, it was a hard-fought game. It was a physical game. It was a rough game that at the beginning at least lacked a little skill. It got cleaned up as it went. It did get cleaned up. But 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 offseason, but you know in the the other uh the rest of the year they're not playing but they started friends that's what i heard down at fort bragg right yeah a group started getting built yeah coming together started recruiting the amount of people who came to us after as we started releasing all of our interviews and said hey wait yeah i played at this level i've been over here dude where were you three months ago yeah so the team got you know we had to expand the roster right had to make some cuts yep unfortunately it's part of playing at the elite level but it's gotten after just one year a lot more hyped and you can see it in practice and the thing that i'll say is that when we were with the team last night at the dinner there was a looseness about it meaning that they're serious they're focused but the tension wasn't there and you know when you operate at that level you can't have fear yeah you got to be focused you got to be committed you got to be ready to go because you have to be free in execution. That's what I think we're going to see in your room. Right. Yeah, no doubt. I mean, you know, practice is the payoff for the eventual game, right? And, you know, these guys have had a year to think about it, right? And a year to come together under the Green Beret Foundation and a year to come together to the Navy SEAL Foundation. You know, I was fielding calls because I grew up with more Navy guys being from Maryland, fielding calls in March from a couple of guys who were going to play on the Navy side, going through the detail of the jersey. And I was like, listen, foundation is design, champion and PLL fulfill. You got to talk to the foundation about the design. I'm saying, you guys want the bone frog a different color? All good. Like whatever you guys want. I'm staying out of this. But like the level of detail leading up to not only with the threads they're putting on, but the practices have been like, you guys have been here all week practicing, right? And then there's been, General Tovo was just telling me there's been practices being held and organized down in Fort Bragg because of this game. And, you know, I think that that's one of the things about this game is that the community is actually bigger than we think. And the game means something to people. And it's actually been misbranded and sort of represented in a different direction by society. And we're sort of 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. And so 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. I've made calls to Charlie and was like, hey, can you help this guy out? You need some help. He a former ranger but will you help him And he was like yeah I will Let me make some calls And he knows the community the guys that activate right I didn have those relationships before but that was a lacrosse relationship I had A guy that needed some help It was a ranger for 20 years and Charles was able to help So anyway, those things like are valuable. And we tell those stories not to beat our chest, but just to say that this is a real, we're building this community together and we're just excited to be a part of a man. And they're people of character. Yeah. And when you look around it, you look at the guys who rotate that field tonight, players who are out there to operate at that level. You can have all the physical ability of the world, you got to be a person and character 100 you got to have that 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 you know every single week throughout your season and then also this game i'll go on tonight that's going to be on my game the air seeer how are you feeling about it feel good you feel good i feel good i mean i'm not are you are you on the sidelines are you coming back into lacrosse because you played a little lacrosse right in high in high school yeah you feel like this game has drawn you back to the sport a little bit absolutely yeah 100 i can i can relive my floor retention but the team has to get younger yeah i got older do you feel like that correlation i was talking about do you like of what you learned when you played high school lacrosse do you think some of that transfers over being a tier one operator like you were a green beret i think athletic athletic general teach you a certain level of discipline yeah and resiliency and adaptability yeah that become critical to your ability to succeed at that level, whether you become a Green Beret, Navy SEAL, Army Ranger, Green Raider, you have to take those skills that are learned through athletics. Yeah. And you're going to apply those every day. Yeah. 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 SEAL that get to pee for the Starfield Drive Classic? Those guys want a piece too. I'm like, hey, look, we built it together. We want to open up to all the communities, but you know, we'll see how that goes. Yeah, well, they can get one. They can get in line. Hey, Seth. Mike, we're going to get you back in the game. I can get you just started in there but I appreciate you taking a couple minutes hopping in one of these things. You know, next time we got to get you in one that we can put some guns on here. I love that. Yeah, show me to ride this thing around, man. Let's find the desert. Come to San Diego and ride this thing around the Razor. Right. It could be put to you. Thanks, man. Awesome. Thanks for having me, man. Appreciate all you do. Thank you. Awesome. American Jedbergs went on to form the foundation of the United States Special Forces and the Special Activities Directorate of the Central Intelligence Agency. Thanks for listening to the Jedberg Podcast, an official program of the Green Beret Foundation. I'm your creator and host, Fran Ricciopi. Join us next week for a new episode on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Check us out on YouTube for full episodes, highlights, and other long and short form content. If you like what you heard, give us a like and leave a review. Follow the Jedberg Podcast and the Green Beret Foundation on LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, X or Threads. Send your comments and inquiries to fran at jedbergpodcast.com. As former members of Special Operations Forces, the Jedberg Media Channel and the Green Beret Foundation remain committed to supporting all generations of U.S. Army Special Forces and their families. Thanks for joining us on this episode. How you prepare today determines success tomorrow. We'll see you next time.
