NLL Insider

Back yard pride is on the line this weekend as Ryan Powell and I take on our older brothers Casey and Patrick this weekend in Portland.

Competition between two brothers is innate. Since I can remember, my brother and I would compete against each other in everything. We would make up games just so we could compete. One winter my family took a trip down to Florida to go to Disney world. My parents couldn’t drag my brother and me off the tennis court at the hotel for the entire week — and we don’t even like tennis.

Our ping pong table became unusable because if one of us lost, the paddle would be thrown at the table (or at each other). If at any point I came close to winning, my brother would always take it one more step to make sure his younger brother didn’t get the best of him. Whether it was hacking me under the boards as I went up for a clean lay-up, or chopping my fingers in a game of knee hockey, my brother made me earn everything I ever got against him.

If you have seen him play lacrosse, you’ll know what I’m taking about. He’s about 5′11, weighs maybe a 165lbs (skinniest legs in the league), but continues to be one toughest players in the league.Ultimately, that competition with my brother pushed me to become tougher, stronger … better. Although he was hard on me, he would be the first one there to stick up for me.

I bet if you look around the league and see the other brothers that play in the NLL (Powells, Wrays, Malawskys, Evans, Dawsons) you will see a similar relationship. Extremely competitive, but also unconditionally loyal. At some point in our teenage years, we became so competitive that we couldn’t be on opposite teams — and we really haven’t been on separate teams since … until Saturday night.

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