Maybe you're being a little Lax

So, lacrosse. Fastest sport on two feet.

Start watching it.

I'm being selfish, though. If it gets popular, they'll make a video game for it. They should already, but what do I know. Oh yeah, everything. Kind of like Jack Black's character in "Heat Vision and Jack." Which about three people saw, and probably none of the people that regularly read this. So that was a fairly esoteric reference to make, but I'm okay with that.

Back on track, though, I was never much of a lacrosse person until college. And I grew up in Maryland, which has been pushing hard for awhile to have the state sport changed to lacrosse (from jousting...a concession was made to make lax the team sport of the state, but how stupid is that? You only see jousting at the Renn Fest and Medieval Times, and that's fixed). But once I got here, I really grew to appreciate the game. It really is the fastest sport on two feet.

For those of you readers who are really lost at this point, lacrosse is a team sport, with origins in Native American life. Players carry sticks, or crosses, which have a net in the top (with pocket sizes that are strictly regulated), and the ball is a very hard ball a little smaller than a tennis ball. From there, the rules are kind of like soccer and hockey. Except the ball is played from crosse to crosse, not played along the ground. If you've ever seen the movie American Pie, that's the sport that Oz and Stiffler play. It's huge on the East Coast of the US, most notably Maryland through New York (though it does go as far down as Florida, but you'll find more youth and secondary school teams in the primary area). It has caught on in the Denver area, too. It's the national summer sport of Canada, and I know for a fact that there are youth leagues around the world because I worked the Under 18 World Lacrosse Tournament 3 years ago. And most of the country probably knows lacrosse as the sport those kids at Duke played, the ones who were accused of raping a stripper last year.

Admittedly, it's hard to follow at first. That ball zips around quickly. But once you get the hang of it, it's a great fast moving game that takes a lot of athleticism. Can you run the length of a lacrosse field (depending on men's or women's, indoor or outdoor, the field varies) while "cradling" a ball in your pocket (an action that requires turning the stick back and forth with a wrist motion in order to keep the ball in the pocket of the net) while defenders slap their sticks against yours, most of the time hitting more of you than the stick? I know I can't.

Give it a chance.