Two-Time World Lacrosse Champion and Co-Founder & President of Premier Lacrosse League
Paul Rabil: Biography at a Glance
- Paul Rabil is a two-time world lacrosse champion and Co-Founder & President of the Premier Lacrosse League (PLL), a league he launched with his brother while he was still active as a player.
- Rabil attracted the top lacrosse players in the world to the PLL, led the merger of the PLL and Major League Lacrosse to expand the league from six teams to eight, and inked a multi-year media rights deal with ESPN.
- One of the best players in the world, Rabil influenced the sport at every level, winning multiple championships and MVPs in the NCAA and professionally, as well as becoming the all-time scoring leader in professional outdoor lacrosse.
- The ESPN Films Documentary Fate Of A Sport chronicles the story of how Paul changed the trajectory of the sport and built the new league to increase player salaries, provide more benefits, and give players ownership.
- Paul was named one of Entrepreneur Magazine's Top 40 Most Entrepreneurial Athletes and Sports Business Journal's Forty Under 40, becoming one of the first honorees in history to balance executive duties with professional playing duties.
- Rabil 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.
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Biography
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.
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.
In 2011, Paul founded the Paul Rabil Foundation (PRF), with the mission of helping children with learning differences, by creating programs and partnerships through sport and scholarship. 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.
Topics
Suiting Up: Performing in Sports, Business, and Everything in Between
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.
