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Can Paul Rabil Make Lacrosse Sexy?

STICK MAN Paul Rabil signed with two pro teams. He also has signed with several sponsors, as in this photo shoot for Red Bull.Credit...Brian Nevins/Red Bull Photofiles

PAUL RABIL, “the LeBron James of lacrosse” to loyal fans, was shooting. He can fire the ball at up to 111 miles an hour, faster than a slap shot in hockey and only slightly slower than an archer’s hurtling arrow. But this time the shot missed, hitting the top goal post and ricocheting out toward the stands. A little girl in the line of fire screamed in an accelerating crescendo, “I don’t want to get hit, I don’t want to get killed!” The ball sailed harmlessly overhead. Calming down she asked, “Who shot that?”

“Paul Rabil,” her mother replied, as people nearby in the stands nodded appreciatively.

It was a sweltering August afternoon near Annapolis, Md., and the Boston Cannons had gathered for their final practice before facing the Chesapeake Bayhawks in the semifinals of Major League Lacrosse, the sport’s outdoor professional league. The formidable powers of Mr. Rabil are no secret to anyone who follows the sport. After graduating in 2008 from Johns Hopkins, he signed with two professional teams: the Cannons and the Washington Stealth, part of the National Lacrosse League, which competes indoors.

He quickly established himself as a ferocious competitor, and in 2009 Major League Lacrosse named him its most valuable player. This year was even busier. He powered the Stealth to the league title, then snagged a gold medal and the M.V.P. crown with Team USA at the world championships. And he helped propel the Cannons to its semifinal showdown against the Bayhawks.

If the Cannons were to prevail this season, Mr. Rabil would have claimed the lacrosse equivalent of the Triple Crown. “Ask anybody,” Cannons Coach Bill Daye said. “Paul is the best player in Major League Lacrosse.”

What excites the faithful, though, is not just Mr. Rabil’s dominance on field but his potential for fame off of it. Like Danica Patrick, or a before-the-fall Tiger Woods, Mr. Rabil is seen as someone who can both raise the profile of his sport and perhaps even transcend it to become that most revered of American figures: a celebrity.

Three years into his pro career, Mr. Rabil has snared not only sponsors like Maverik, which makes lacrosse equipment, but also more mainstream brands like Red Bull and Under Armour. Lacrosse ads traditionally feature teams or nameless players, but Mr. Rabil’s campaigns position him front and center as a role model.

Lacrosse cheerleaders welcome the spotlight. “We’ve always believed that having heroes is an important part of what drives the popularity of the game,” said Steve Stenersen, president of US Lacrosse, the sport’s governing body.

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IN THE FIELD Paul Rabil at his home in Maryland.Credit...Andrew Councill for The New York Times

If lacrosse has a particular need for heroes, that’s because the spotlight has lately been hogged by alleged villains. First there were the Duke lacrosse players accused of raping a stripper in 2006. Then, this year, a University of Virginia lacrosse player, George Huguely, was charged with murdering his ex-girlfriend, also a lacrosse player. In 2007 the North Carolina attorney general exonerated the Duke players, and their original prosecutor was disbarred for suppressing exculpatory DNA evidence. Mr. Huguely has yet to be tried.

In both cases, though, the news media and public seemed all too ready to pounce. Lacrosse has an image problem, deservedly or not, and it is against this fraught backdrop that Mr. Rabil has emerged onto the scene.

THE Paul Rabil story begins on field, where a key reason for his success was obvious as he juked defenders and ripped off shots at the practice before the semifinal game. “He’s a freak of an athlete,” Mr. Daye said. “He’s strong, fast and can stop or change directions on a dime.”

At 6-foot-3 and 220 pounds, Mr. Rabil had the physique and slashing moves of an N.F.L. running back. “People might not think of lacrosse players as matching up to other team sports athletes, but Paul is as big and strong as anyone,” said his agent, Ira Rainess, a lawyer in Baltimore who has also represented Cal Ripken Jr. and the All-Pro linebacker Ray Lewis.

Mr. Rabil, however, doesn’t rest on his genetically blessed laurels. He is known for his ferocious work ethic, both in the gym and on the field. As the practice wound down Mr. Daye summoned the players to the center of the field for a pep talk. “It all comes down to us, right here,” he shouted. “It doesn’t matter what anybody else does. Let’s go out there tomorrow and have some fun!” The huddle was dispersing when Mr. Rabil piped up. “Uh, coach, could we run a few more sets?”

Lacrosse may not be widely played but it is certainly well established — it is among the oldest sports in North America. Its origins go back to the Native Americans and, starting in the late 19th century, a modern version of the game was embraced by prep schools and elite universities. While the sport today is played at far more public schools than private ones, it is still considered an elitist game because “the stereotype hasn’t caught up with reality,” Mr. Stenersen said.

Thousands of articles have been written about the lacrosse scandals of the last few years, but you only have to skim a handful to learn the stereotypes. Players party too much. They’re prone to violence. They’re entitled rich kids smashing mailboxes with their lacrosse sticks before blazing off in daddy’s Ferrari. A sampling of recent headlines includes “Lacrosse Afflicted by Sense of Entitlement” (The Baltimore Sun) and “Lacrosse Breeds Awful White Kids” (from the sports blog Dueling Couches).

The current scandal involving a female Duke student who wrote a mock PowerPoint “thesis” that describes sexual exploits with 13 student-athletes, more than half of them lacrosse players, didn’t help.

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An Under Armour ad.

Mr. Rabil, however, doesn’t fit the image of the unredeemable preppy. His teammates are mostly clean-cut J. Crew types; one had shown up to practice on that hot August afternoon complaining about the difficulty he’d had finding a place to dock his boat. Mr. Rabil, with his shaggy, dark hair, cast-iron jaw and brooding eyes, looked more as though he’d rolled up on a skateboard.

“He’s got a great swagger about him,” said Steve Battista, a marketing executive at Under Armour. “He’s done a great job of carving out a different way to think about lacrosse players.”

The morning before the semifinal game in August, Mr. Rabil had ambled into the sailing-themed lobby of an upscale hotel in Annapolis. Like many athletes, his movements were as laconic off the field as they were frenetic on it. Nursing his coffee Mr. Rabil didn’t come across as someone raised with a silver spoon in his mouth.

He was born in 1985 and grew up in the Maryland suburbs outside of Washington. His mother was a Roman Catholic school art teacher; his father, who worked in sales for an aerospace company, was the one who encouraged his son to try many sports. He played soccer and basketball, but didn’t fall in love athletically until trying lacrosse in middle school.

He started getting serious about lacrosse his freshman year in high school but wasn’t very good. “I was bigger, faster and stronger than my classmates but they had better stick skills so they were better at lacrosse,” he said. Only after drilling endlessly did he progress. “I’m not into those sports clichés about winning — ‘who wants it most, who wants to be the best,’ ” he said. “Everybody wants to be the best. The difference is who is willing to put in the most work.”

At Johns Hopkins Mr. Rabil had a 3.5 G.P.A., majoring in political science with a minor in entrepreneurship and management. Even during college, though, it was clear that for him, lacrosse wouldn’t have to end after graduation. “The rest,” he said, “is history.”

Most professional lacrosse players, though, must do more than simply play lacrosse. Salaries are low so most players can’t afford to quit their day jobs. The Cannons roster includes lawyers, stockbrokers and a pharmaceutical salesman. A decade ago even a top-shelf player like Mr. Rabil would have little choice but to do the same. “All you had out there were small deals with lacrosse gear manufacturers, $5,000 and free gear, that type of thing,” he said.

But in the last decade, despite the negative press (or maybe because of it), lacrosse has been growing. Since 2001 the number of American lacrosse players has more than doubled to 568,000, an all-time high, according to US Lacrosse. Collegiate and professional games are now routinely televised on ESPN’s channels and CBS College Sports.

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In his Johns Hopkins collegiate days.Credit...Jim Rogash/Getty Images

What this means to Mr. Rabil is that he can eke out a living doing nothing but lacrosse. “Agents got into the game, and the sponsorships grew more sophisticated,” he said. “There’s more money out there now, but more demands on your time.” Practices. Games. Autograph sessions. Running clinics for students. Photo shoots and appearances for sponsors. In any number of tangible ways, the job of promoting lacrosse falls directly on players’ shoulders. “It’s part of our job as entrepreneurs,” Mr. Rabil said dutifully.

But first, lacrosse has to overcome its relative obscurity. In a 2008 sports survey by Marketing Evaluations, the company best known for its Q Scores, which rate the likeability and potential marketing power of celebrities, only 24 percent of respondents had any opinion about lacrosse. No other team sport surveyed scored lower.

“Not only is lacrosse a low-visibility sport, but even among the people who claim to have some interest in it, you’ve got almost six times more negative ratings than positive ones,” said Steven Levitt, the research firm’s president.

Celebrity, of course, is an unpredictable beast. Think Danica Patrick — talented, attractive, famous and, until her recent foray into Nascar, only involved in the marginally popular sport of open-wheel racing. Or Ignacio Figueras, who plays the rarified sport of polo. But that didn’t stop Ralph Lauren from picking the lantern-jawed polo player to be the face of Polo cologne.

And perhaps lacrosse is having a fashion moment. The designer Michael Bastian, who has breathed new life in the Gant clothing company, has done so in part by channeling lacrosse in its newest line — going so far as to feature half-naked lacrosse players showering in the windows of its Fifth Avenue flagship last month.

Though the collection’s style of prep school nostalgia — fitted tweeds, striped rugby shirts and rakish scarves for fall scrimmages on the quad — is the opposite of Mr. Rabil’s personal look, one suspects he could pull it off.

Already, Mr. Rabil’s face, body and personality have been branded by advertisers. Red Bull put him in one nationally televised ad on ESPN, while Under Armour and Maverik have used him heavily both in television campaigns and magazine ads. All of them show him close up in the athlete-as-invincible-cyborg-deity style of advertising that has changed little since the days of Michael Jordan. Rippling muscles. Unwavering eyes. Flying drops of sweat in strobe-lit air.

Finding venues for even wider exposure is the key. “The best thing that could happen to someone like Mr. Rabil is for him to get on ‘Dancing with the Stars’ ” Mr. Levitt said, “so that his personality becomes more well known to the general public.”

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THE LOOK The new Gant line has drawn lacrosse into its designs.Credit...Magnus Reed/Gant

THE friendlier face of lacrosse was on display in the parking lot before the semifinals match at the Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium in Annapolis.

As a band ripped through an overcaffeinated version of “I Shot the Sheriff,” families wandered around the pavilion. There were booths from gear manufacturers, a bar serving only Bud Lite Lime, and an inflatable structure housing a small lacrosse field filled with stick-swinging kids.

No. 99 Paul Rabil jerseys were everywhere. “He’s amazing, and I think he’s the best,” gushed 9-year-old Jo Jo Kelliher.

Anticipation was high. If the Cannons won, the team would go on to the championship game the next day. Lose and it was over. When the match finally started, the teams battled with the frantic, nearly nonstop motion of soccer, but with more scoring. There were the knifing drives of basketball, the headlong dives of a sliding base runner, the body-to-body collisions of football.

It turns out that the LeBron James of lacrosse, just like the real LeBron James, is not immune to a flat performance in a crucial playoff. The Cannons floundered toward a 10-3 halftime deficit, in part because Mr. Rabil was uncharacteristically low-key, lingering near midfield and logging few drives or shot attempts.

Midway through the first half he charged toward the goal, a sudden blast of power and agility, and passed to a teammate, who scored. Minutes later he attacked again, took a soaring dive and scored, but the goal was nullified by a penalty because he made contact with the goalie. As the match progressed, the mood of the crowd went from shocked to frustrated. A boy in the stands seemed to speak for everyone when he told his father, “I wish I were on the field so I could say to them, ‘Wake! Up!’ They’re like asleep!” The Cannons went on to a 13-9 loss.

Just like that, Mr. Rabil’s season was over, but he would hardly be idle. The off-season was his time for focused training, clinics and weekly events for sponsors. In October he would be featured alongside the likes of Amar’e Stoudemire and Kelly Slater in a special issue of ESPN The Magazine, showcasing the best physiques in sports. And potential new promotional deals were in the works with more companies, including a watch manufacturer.

“Businesses in nontraditional lacrosse markets are seeing more opportunity with the growth and exposure of the sport,” Mr. Rabil, as the marketer, said.

In the next breath, though, he was back to Mr. Rabil, the athlete, with more hunger in his words. “Every day, I get up to train, and I relish on the opportunity to avenge the way I ended the M.L.L. season,” he said. “I’m very focused with my primary objective,” he added, “on becoming the best player in the game.”

A correction was made on 
Oct. 21, 2010

Because of an editing error, an article last Thursday about the lacrosse player Paul Rabil referred imprecisely to his scoring records at Johns Hopkins University. Although he holds records in National Collegiate Athletic Association tournament games, Terry Riordan has the most career goals over all for the university, among other records. And because of an editing error, the article referred incorrectly to a Duke University student who wrote a mock PowerPoint thesis about sexual exploits with student-athletes, including lacrosse players. She was a senior, not a graduate student.

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A version of this article appears in print on  , Section E, Page 1 of the New York edition with the headline: Can This Man Make Lacrosse Sexy?. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe

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