#184: Building Elite Warriors - Premier Lacrosse League CEO Mike Rabil (2nd Annual Stars & Stripes Classic)

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 https://www.espn.com/video/clip/_/id/46132388, Fran Racioppi https://www.linkedin.com/in/francisracioppijr/ sat down with Mike Rabi https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikerabil/l, co-founder and CEO of the Premier Lacrosse League https://premierlacrosseleague.com/, to highlight the PLL’s partnership with the Green Beret Foundation https://greenberetfoundation.org/ and explore how the sport of lacrosse is intertwined with American Special Operators. 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 only 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. Highlights 0:00 Introduction1:21 Welcome to the Stars & Stripes Classic2:50 PLL Progression4:51 College to Pro8:32 Leading up to the Second S&S Game11:14 Lacrosse Discipline in Special Ops Quotes “50% of our games have been decided by just one goal this year.”“Now the pressure’s on us to make it worthwhile.”“These are the best lacrosse players in the world but some of the best athletes.”“To incorporate endurance, strength, physicality, and the hand eye, those are things as a tier one operator you need.”“Practice is the payoff for the eventual game.”“The community is actually bigger than we think, the game means something to people and it's actually been misbranded.”“They’re people of character.”“I think athletics in general will teach you a certain level of discipline, resiliency, and adaptability that become critical to your ability to succeed.” Follow the Jedburgh Podcast https://www.instagram.com/jedburghpodcast/ and the Green Beret Foundation https://www.instagram.com/greenberetfoundation/ on social media. Listen on your favorite podcast platform https://pod.link/1558608802, read on our website https://greenberetfoundation.org/the-jedburgh-podcast/, and watch the full video version on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/@jedburghpodcast as we show why America must continue to lead from the front, no matter the challenge.

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:02Fran Racioppi?

  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 Rabil, co-founder and CEO of the Premier Lacrosse League, to highlight the PLL's 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,

• 0:47Fran Racioppi?

  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 Jedburgh 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.

• 1:20Speaker 01

  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, and what you guys are building at Jedburgh. 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,

• 2:05Speaker 01

  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 game. Yep. And we talked about...

• 2:17Fran Racioppi?

  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 want to ask about the PLL. I want to, where has 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?

• 3:02Speaker 01

  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 Water Dogs barely lost to the Atlas. Atlas is going to the championship game in two weeks, September 14th, for the first time ever. And then we have, you know, the Redwoods playing the Denver Outlaws here in a couple of minutes. You know, 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, you know, 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 championship is sponsored by US Bank.

• 3:47Speaker 01

  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 Tobo. I'm like, I don't feel right to be here. And so I think things are going well, but then you also saw 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 off season. That's what we really press on the gas.

• 4:18Fran Racioppi?

  The level of clay of these athletes is absolutely astounding.

• 4:23Speaker 01

  Right.

• 4:23Fran Racioppi?

  I mean, when you look at, you look at elite athletes, for other professional sports, these guys are so versatile. They're so quick, they're fast, they're strong.

• 4:36Fran Racioppi?

  And lacrosse is, I think, developing such well-rounded athletes.

• 4:41Speaker 01

  Totally.

• 4:42Fran Racioppi?

  And we're seeing that, you know, we're going to see that tonight with our guys who've gone in now to 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 league?

• 4:57Speaker 01

  I was just watching the game earlier and I was sitting there, I was 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 the 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, that 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,

• 5:41Speaker 01

  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, 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 a 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 were 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.

• 6:27Speaker 01

  And how lacrosse players are a huge part of that community.

• 6:30Fran Racioppi?

  A lot of guys who, I would say too, there are a couple of guys who played in the league, I think.

• 6:36Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 6:37Fran Racioppi?

  Who are in tier one units.

• 6:39Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 6:39Fran Racioppi?

  Now.

• 6:39Speaker 01

  I, yeah.

• 6:40Fran Racioppi?

  Which is incredibly impressive.

• 6:42Speaker 01

  They might be out here today, but we won't tell them who they are.

• 6:44Fran Racioppi?

  One guy has a brother too.

• 6:46Speaker 01

  Yep.

• 6:46Fran Racioppi?

  Who I believe he's 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 serious.

• 7:01Speaker 01

  Oh, my God.

• 7:02Fran Racioppi?

  And seriously. Even though last year, the Green Beret Foundation was down to by two.

• 7:08Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 7:08Fran Racioppi?

  For a final score, it was a hard fought game. It was a physical game. It was a it was a rough game that at the beginning at least lacked a little skill. It got cleaned up as it went.

• 7:20Speaker 01

  It did get cleaned up, right?

• 7:21Fran Racioppi?

  These guys on both sides left the field last year and said, I have a commitment to this team. And I'm going to put the time in. I guess we'll call the off season, but you know, in the, the other, uh, the rest of the year that they're not playing, but

• 7:36Speaker 01

  Right.

• 7:36Fran Racioppi?

  They started fresh.

• 7:38Speaker 01

  That's what I heard, down to four brag, right?

• 7:39Fran Racioppi?

  Yeah.

• 7:40Speaker 01

  A good start again, Bill.

• 7:41Fran Racioppi?

  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.

• 7:48Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 7:49Fran Racioppi?

  I played at this level. I played over here. Dude, where were you three months ago?

• 7:53Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 7:53Fran Racioppi?

  So the team got young.

• 7:54Speaker 01

  We had to expand the roster, right? Had to make some cuts.

• 7:57Fran Racioppi?

  Yep.

• 7:57Speaker 01

  Unfortunately, it's part of playing at the elite level, but it's gotten after just one year, a lot more hyped.

• 8:04Fran Racioppi?

  Mm hmm. 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.

• 8:23Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 8:24Fran Racioppi?

  You gotta be focused. You gotta be committed. You gotta be ready to go because you have to be free in execution.

• 8:29Speaker 01

  Right.

• 8:29Fran Racioppi?

  That's what I think we're gonna see in your.

• 8:31Speaker 01

  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 in Navy SEAL Foundation. You know, I was fielding calls just because I grew up with more Navy guys being from Maryland, fielding calls in March from a couple of guys who are gonna play on the Navy side, going through the detail of the jersey. And I was like, listen, foundation is design. Being in PLL fulfill, you gotta talk to the foundation about the design. Say, what you guys want the bone frog a different color? All good, like whatever you guys want. I'm not, I'm staying out of this, but like the level of detail leading up to not only what the threads are putting on, but the practices have been like, you guys have been here all week practices, right?

• 9:15Speaker 01

  And then there's been, I was, General Tobo 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 of 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? He needs some help. He's a former Ranger.

• 9:56Fran Racioppi?

  Yeah.

• 9:56Speaker 01

  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't 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 Charlie 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 them.

• 10:18Fran Racioppi?

  And they're people of character.

• 10:19Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 10:19Fran Racioppi?

  And when you look around and you look at the guys who are taking that field tonight, players who are out there to operate at that level, you can have all the physical ability in the world, but you gotta be a person of character. A hundred percent. You gotta have that, that adaptability, the resiliency, the integrity. When you have those things of 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 that I'll go on tonight, that's going to be on my, I think, air seater.

• 10:45Speaker 01

  How are you feeling about it?

• 10:46Fran Racioppi?

  Feel good.

• 10:47Speaker 01

  You feel good?

• 10:48Fran Racioppi?

  I feel good. I mean, I'm not, I'll be on the sidelines.

• 10:50Speaker 01

  Are you coming back into lacrosse? Cause you played a little lacrosse, right?

• 10:52Fran Racioppi?

  In high.

• 10:53Speaker 01

  In high school.

• 10:53Fran Racioppi?

  Yeah.

• 10:53Speaker 01

  Are you feel like this game has drawn you back to the sport a little bit?

• 10:56Fran Racioppi?

  Absolutely.

• 10:57Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 10:57Fran Racioppi?

  A hundred percent. I can, I can relive my Flori days.

• 10:59Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 11:00Fran Racioppi?

  But the team has to get younger.

• 11:02Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 11:02Fran Racioppi?

  I got older.

• 11:03Speaker 01

  Do you feel like that correlation I was talking about, do you like of what you learned when you played high school lacrosse? You think some of that transfers over being a tier one operator like you were Green Beret?

• 11:11Fran Racioppi?

  I think athletic, athletic general will teach you a certain level of discipline.

• 11:16Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 11:17Fran Racioppi?

  And resiliency and adaptability.

• 11:19Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 11:19Fran Racioppi?

  That become critical to your ability to succeed at that level, whether you become a Green Beret, Navy SEAL, Army Ranger, Marine Raider. You have to take those skills that are learned through athletics.

• 11:32Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 11:32Fran Racioppi?

  And you're gonna apply those every day.

• 11:35Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 11:35Fran Racioppi?

  Every day.

• 11:36Speaker 01

  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, they get to pee for the Star of the Five 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.

• 11:53Fran Racioppi?

  Yeah, well, they can get one.

• 11:54Speaker 01

  And get in line, hit.

• 11:55Fran Racioppi?

  Hey, Seth. Uh, Mike, we're gonna get you back in the game. It just started in there, but I appreciate you taking a couple of minutes hopping in one of these things. You know, next time we gotta get you in one that we put some guns on here.

• 12:06Speaker 01

  I love that.

• 12:07Fran Racioppi?

  Yeah, show me to ride this thing around, man.

• 12:08Speaker 01

  Let's find a desert, come to San Diego, ride this thing around the razor.

• 12:11Fran Racioppi?

  Right. It could be put to you. So thanks for that.

• 12:14Speaker 01

  Awesome. Thanks for having me, man. Appreciate all you do. Thank you. Awesome.

• 12:20Fran Racioppi?

  American Jedbergs went on to form the Foundation of the United States Special Forces and the Special Activities Director of the Central Intelligence Agency. Thanks for listening to the Jedburgh Podcast, an official program of the Green Beret Foundation. I'm your creator and host, Fran Richelieu. 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 Jedburgh Podcast and the Green Beret Foundation on LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, extra threads. Send your comments and inquiries to Fran at Jedburgh Podcast dot com. As former members of Special Operations Forces, the Jedburgh Media Channel and the Green Beret Foundation remain committed to supporting all generations of US Army Special Forces and their families. Thanks for joining us on this episode.

• 13:06Fran Racioppi?

  How you prepare today determines success tomorrow.