Breaking: Warrior Drops Paul Rabil

In the sport of lacrosse there are a handful of sponsorship deals that a professional player can have. STX and Warrior are the biggest and most central lacrosse companies that sponsor athletes, while other companies like TRUE, Under Amour, and Signature are making strides in the business. In the MLL, Warrior has the majority sponsorship deal. All of the jerseys are made by Warrior along with the cleats and apparel which is mandatory to wear. In the newly formed PLL, Adidas is the main sponsor and supplies all apparel and footwear. Many athletes in each league are permitted to use equipment from their individual sponsorship if they are paid enough by this company. For many players in the PLL, they sport some interesting combinations of brands for their equipment. For a while, it seemed a little peculiar how some of the athletes were able to wear gear outside of their sponsor.

On Tuesday morning, an article posted by Bloombergconfirmed that Warrior was no longer the sponsor to Paul Rabil after supposedly violating terms of their contract. Paul Rabil, for those that do not know, is known by many for being the best lacrosse player in the world, the creator of the PLL, and the sport’s biggest ambassador and entrepreneur. As the news broke about this termination of the relationship between Rabil and Warrior, there was more research done on why this came about. In a statement made by Warrior, they claimed that Rabil broke the terms of their contract by wearing Adidas socks, jersey, and practice pinnie in early June. This is a bit confusing because the players have no choice but to wear their team’s jersey, right? Well, this is where it gets political.

Paul Rabil

It seems that Warrior terminated Rabil’s contract because of their displeasure with him going off and creating his own league that was not the current league, which was sponsored by Warrior, and then did not decide to sponsor the new league by Warrior as well. Warrior took it to a personal level by terminating Rabil’s lucrative contract and deciding to keep all others in the PLL at the same time. Rabil made it known that “I’m disappointed in their decision, but remain resolute in the mission of the PLL to build a new future for players and our sport”, in a tweet earlier that morning. In my opinion, with the pressure all on him, Rabil did a tremendous job of keeping his focus on growing the sport and the league to the heights the sport has never seen. All in all, this contract termination is the first controversy we have seen between the two leagues so far. Hopefully this competition will not continue in this negative manner in the future.