Two-Time World Lacrosse Champion and Co-Founder & President of Premier Lacrosse League
Two-Time World Lacrosse Champion and Co-Founder & President of Premier Lacrosse League
Paul is a former professional lacrosse player and co-founder of the Premier Lacrosse League (PLL) – a professional league launched in October 2018 with more than 100 of the best players in the world. In 2020, Paul led the merger of the MLL and PLL, growing the league from an initial six teams to eight teams that tour major market cities. In 2022, Paul inked a multi-year media rights deal with ESPN.
Paul also launched PLL assists, a program that works with non-profit organizations, domestic and international, to combat physical and mental illnesses, promote diversity and inclusion in the sport, honor the creators of the game, make a positive impact on the environment, support service members, and create access to the sport of lacrosse in communities that may not otherwise have it.
The ESPN Films Documentary Fate Of A Sport chronicles the story of how Paul and his brother changed the trajectory of the sport and built the new league to increase player salaries, provide more benefits, and give players ownership.
Paul has influenced the sport at every level, winning championships and MVP twice in the NCAA, and multiple times in professional outdoor and indoor lacrosse, in addition to becoming a two-time World Lacrosse Champion with Team USA.
Off the field, Paul has leveraged his sophistication in media and tech to build a robust multi-channel network. Anchored by his YouTube channel with more than 250,000 subscribers and an Instagram account with over 420,000 followers, Paul utilizes each platform’s unique tools to connect with audiences around the world, telling his story through the lens of lacrosse. In 2017, Paul launched his award-winning Suiting Up Podcast, where he hosts top athletes, entrepreneurs, and entertainers in an interview format to share their journey to success while disclosing tips to listeners. The podcast has more than 3M downloads and was featured as the #1 New and Noteworthy podcast by Apple Podcasts. Paul was named Most Tech-Savvy Athlete on the Planet by SportTechie, and Best Athlete in a Web Series at the Cynopsis Sports Media Awards. Entrepreneur Magazine hailed Paul as one of its Top 40 Most Entrepreneurial Athletes. Paul was also named to Sports Business Journal's Forty Under 40, becoming one of the first honorees in history to balance his executive duties with professional playing duties.
Having grown up with Auditory Processing Disorder and ADHD, Paul looked to sports to help build confidence and interpersonal skills, saying “the crossover between athletics and academics was critical to my growth and broader achievement.” Paul graduated from John Hopkins University, where he played championship lacrosse, in 2008.
As a former professional athlete and a founder of the Premier Lacrosse League, Paul Rabil knows what it takes to win in sports and in business. Over the years, he has developed a playbook of tools and strategies that have helped him both on the field and in the boardroom.
In this conversation, Paul shares his high-performance tips, discusses times of challenge and inspiration, and unpacks how he and the other world-class performers he has met along the way think and compete during the most critical moments of their careers.
The most acclaimed lacrosse player of all time, the sport’s first million-dollar man, and the founder of his own professional league, Paul Rabil is synonymous with greatness. But how did he get there?
In this conversation, Paul synthesizes everything he learned on his path to becoming the greatest lacrosse player of all time and provides a guide to embodying a champion's mindset—in sports, in business, and in relationships. Paul draws from his own experiences as well as insight from other greats: from conversations Bill Belichick about preparation, Steph Curry about practice, and Sue Bird about resilience and adversity. He leaves audiences with a blueprint for being a pro in all areas of life that's equal parts strategy, philosophy, psychology.