Lacrosse for the Football Brain-Rinsed
If you’ve never seen lacrosse played, it is probably easy to dismiss it. “I like football,” most well brain-rinsed-by-Fox fans will repeat like a Manchurian candidate. Lacrosse has the pace of a basketball game, the physicality of football or hockey, and the skill sets of baseball. It is also the oldest and most established sport in North America, bar none.
History
The oldest sport in North America, many Native Americans still refer to it as "The Creator's Game." What was called baggataway for centuries was dubbed “Lacrosse," a French-Canadian term which means literally crosier or "crooked stick," after the staff that a Bishop might carry.
These rough games with sticks topped by woven nets that passed wood, deer skin, baked clay or stone balls towards a chosen pole, tree or rock were woven into the Native Americans’ religious and political practices across what is now Canada and the United States. It was played to bring good fortune, heal the sick, develop strong warriors, resolve conflicts, or even start them.
Games were played on fields that spanned up to 15 miles, could have a thousand players, and could go on for days.
It was, and is, a serious game. For some tribes, “sudden death” really meant something: Players who disgraced their tribe and lost a game might be put to death by a displeased chieftain.
Jesuit missionary Jean de Brebeuf first documented a contest of the Huron indians in 1636. French-Canadian pioneers took up the game in the 1800s. W. George Beers, a Canadian dentist, established the formal game of Lacrosse when he developed a book of basic rules that set limits on the number of players per team and established standard field dimensions.
Lacrosse came to the United States as a school sport. The first college team here was New York University in 1877. Venerable prep schools Philips Academy, Andover, Philips Exeter Academy and the Lawrenceville School had the first high school teams in 1882.
The professional game debuted 110 years later. The Eagle Pro Box Lacrosse League was founded by pro pioneers Chris Fritz and Russ Cline on March 13, 1986. Launched on January 10, 1987, the Philadelphia Wings were downed by the home town New Jersey Saints 11-8 before a small yet enthusiastic crowd of 5,976 fans in the first pro league game. Over the inaugural season, 124,536 fans attended the league games. The first EPBL championship game drew a little over 8500. Not great, but a start.
In 1988, the league was renamed the Major Indoor Lacrosse League (MILL). By 1997, the league expanded and morphed into the National Lacrosse league, with attendance now at a cushy 18,000+ for peak games, and double-digit thousands more common at most matches.
The Game
NLL Lacrosse is a game played indoors by two teams of six players each on a 200 foot by 85 foot rectangular field, usually placed atop a standard size hockey rink covered with artificial turf known as the "carpet" or "rug."
Players use a long-handled stick called a "crosse'" that has a webbed pouch on one end. The ball is not handled but passed by players from one crosse to the next, and carried until the team can maneuver the ball into the opposing team's goal.
Goals, 4 feet high by 4-9 feet wide, are placed at opposite ends of the field. The "crease" which surrounds the goal , is a 9-3 circle out of which an offensive player must stay.
An NLL game is divided into four 15 minute quarters. There are both a two-minute break between play periods, and a twelve-minute halftime.
Additional overtime periods are played until someone breaks the tie. Sudden-death is allowed in OT.
18 players, made up of 16 runners and 2 goaltenders suit up for each game. Each squad is allowed a 23 man roster.
