The Takeaway Check, Issue #21
Which active players have a case to end their career as the GOAT? Plus, Athletes Unlimited pros share stories for Pride Month and an excerpt from the Boston chapter of Major League Life
On a recent episode of the Over the Top podcast, hosted by Michelle Beadle and Peter Rosenberg, the topic of the NHL Stanley Cup matchup came up, and Rosenberg pontificated that Connor McDavid was one of a few athletes in team sports that is actively playing and has a chance to end his career as the greatest of all time in his or her sport. Along with McDavid, the pair mentioned LeBron James and Shohei Ohtani as possibilities as well. So, of course, my brain immediately tried this exercise with lacrosse.
The term “GOAT” is overused at times, but when thinking about the greatest player of all time in lacrosse, some names mentioned typically include Gary and Paul Gait, John Grant Jr., Paul Rabil, Casey Powell, Brodie Merrill, Taylor Cummings, and Kelly Amonte Hiller.
Outside of Merrill coming out of retirement to play with the San Diego Seals this past NLL season, none of those players are still active. The beauty of the sport right now, however, is that there are a ton of talented players out there. Who in the current crop of stars, however, could end up being the best of the best when it’s all said and done?
Trevor Baptiste
He’s currently sixth all time in both career ground balls and faceoff victories, but he’s also the measuring stick that all current faceoff athletes are judged by. He’s one of only two faceoff athletes to win the league MVP award, and the year after he won the award, the league changed the shot clock rule so that teams that dominated faceoffs didn’t suffocate the other team in terms of time of possession. This is in the similar vein of goaltending created for Wilt Chamberlain or not being able to thumb the ball like Jim Brown. Having a rule changed because you’re too dominant is certainly GOAT-like.
Charlotte North
North is one of the biggest draws in all of lacrosse, men’s or women’s. At Boson College, she won two Tewaaraton Awards, and set the single-season goal record (102) and career goal record (358). She’s won an NCAA championship and a gold medal at the World Championship with Team USA. To be the GOAT, however, it isn’t just about stats and awards. The “Queen of the North” inspires so many young players; she’s so fun to watch with her creativity, hard shooting, and overall electric offensive style.
Brennan O’Neill
Yes, his pro career has been brief at only three games, but one of those is literally nicknamed “The Brennan O’Neill Game” because of the impact he made, scoring six goals (one of which was a two-pointer), including the equalizer and game-winner, in the fourth quarter and overtime to beat the Archers, 18-17. There’s a reason he was the Most Outstanding Player in the World Championships as a college player. There’s a reason he was the top player selected in what the PLL called “The Greatest Draft Ever.” It’s because he truly is a generational talent.
Rob Pannell
No player in MLL or PLL history has both 300 goals and 300 assists, but Pannell is knocking on the door. He scored his 300th goal in 2023 and, through Week 4 of the 2024 season, is only 25 assists away from 300. He sits third in professional field lacrosse history in points (588). He also has his patented question mark dodge, the type of signature move kids practice in their backyard and pretend to emulate.
Blaze Riorden
He’s the best goalie in the world and has been since 2019. He’s won four of five possible PLL Goalie of the Year awards. He’s a four-time All-Star. He’s one of only two goalies to win an MLL or PLL MVP award. He’s also a talented offensive player; he’s the highest scoring goalie of all-time, and he plays forward in the NLL, the true definition of a lacrosse player regardless of position.
Izzy Scane
After North won two Tewaaraton Awards, who won the next two? Scane. Who broke North’s record for most goals in a career? Scane. The Scane Train has been dominant in the college game, and it will be interesting to see the impact she has on the pro game this summer and with Team USA in the future.
Tom Schreiber
His list of accolades is impressive. In college, he was a two-time USILA All-American and four-time USILA All-American. In the PLL and MLL, he’s a three-time MVP and nine-time All-Star to go with two championships. He also was the NLL Rookie of the Year in 2017 and won two gold medals at the World Championship with Team USA.
What makes Schreiber’s case so compelling though isn’t just the stats and awards. He also has the memorable moments that GOATs like Michael Jordan and Tom Brady collected over their careers. Whether it’s the goal that won the USA the gold medal in the 2018 World Championship or the game-winning goal in the 2023 PLL Championship for the Archers, Schreiber has the iconic clutch moments that will live on and be replayed forever.
Jeff Teat
He’s already won of the best overall lacrosse players in both box and field, and he’s off to a blistering start to the PLL season with 35 points in five games, on pace to obliterate the PLL single-season record. In 2023, he was one point shy of breaking the NLL single-season record. When you hear people talk about how he plays the game, though, is when you realize just how good he is. Lacrosse All-Stars writer Nick Pietras suggested he could be the next face of the sport. Kyle Harrison, a legend in the sport, routinely comments on Teat’s style, often saying how unfair it is that the game seems so easy to him.
He puts up points at a blistering pace, and people are taking notice. He’s at the beginning of his career, but when all is said and done, he could own both the NLL and PLL record books.
Major League Life: Excerpt from Boston
For the 2024 season, the PLL assigned teams home markets. While the league will still tour week-to-week, when they stop in a home market, the stadium is decked out in team colors and logos and the “home” team will play twice over the weekend.
The league wants the non-diehards to come out and find a reason to be invested in the games. Looking back to the PLL’s inaugural season, when it was going up against Major League Lacrosse, one thing players and fans of the MLL gravitated to was having a home team, a city and fan group they represented.
As the PLL now makes stops in some of those markets, I’d like to share brief excerpts from my book, Major League Life: Why Major League Lacrosse Players, Coaches, and Fans Share a Passion for a League that Often Goes Overlooked that shares the personal ties to lacrosse in those cities.
The PLL is in Boston this weekend, the longtime home of the Cannons and where my book started in June of 2019. That was the first year the Cannons played in a newly renovated stadium in Quincy, Massachusetts. Always known for having a strong following, fans were at the game several hours before the first whistle enjoying a youth tournament, a local U2 cover band, and a beer garden.
At that time, the Cannons featured several players — Nick Marrocco, James Fahey, and Martin Bowes — that grew up in Massachusetts going to Cannons games as kids that then grew up to live their dreams.
While Marrocco and Fahey are in the early stages of their careers, Martin Bowes has been in the league since 2013. This is his first season back in Boston since 2016. After five games with the Cannons in 2016, he was picked up by the Atlanta Blaze in their inaugural season, and then he played for the Florida Launch for two seasons.
He received a warm welcome back from the Cannons fans. Whenever he stepped on the field against the Lizards, the crowd erupted. It certainly helped that he had a lot of family and friends at the game, since they were playing in his hometown. Playing in the first professional lacrosse game in Quincy was one of Bowes’s career highlights.
“I’m honestly having trouble putting it to words,” he said. “More than anything, I’m grateful for friends and family that were able to make it out here. I played my high school lacrosse on this field. It’s surreal. I always dreamed of playing for the Cannons. I did when we were back at Harvard. I spent a couple years away in Florida. Being able to be back here for the inaugural game is pretty special and humbling, and I’m really grateful.”
Athletes Unlimited and USA Lacrosse Magazine Celebrate Pride Month
Throughout June, USA Lacrosse Magazine’s website ran a series of Q & As where Athletes Unlimited professional lacrosse players shared their life experiences as members of the LGBTQ+ community as well as the importance of creating inclusive environments.
Life has plenty of external factors that can cause struggle, so we shouldn’t be the cause for someone else’s pain. I believe the more we learn about people, the more we hear about experiences through unique perspectives, the more we can understand each other and lift each other up.
I wanted to share these stories.
Ally Kennedy and Taylor Moreno
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