Rabil’s Places Episode 4 Recap: When WWE’s Mick Foley Played Lacrosse

If you’ve ever questioned the toughness required for lacrosse, WWE legend Mick Foley immediately sets the record straight in this episode of Rabil’s Places - Crease and Desist (dropping today on ESPN+). The three-time WWE Champion is one of several athletes series host Paul Rabil—a retired lacrosse player and co-founder of the Premier Lacrosse League (PLL)—visits to explore what it takes to be a successful goalie.

Foley credits his time as a youth lacrosse goalie with building his pain tolerance. As he explains, in those early leagues, playing goalie at that level was less shots saved or scored, but taking hits off the body—and learning to play through the pain. It’s a skill that served him well in his legendary wrestling career, particularly during his iconic Hell in a Cell match with The Undertaker. In one of the most unforgettable moments in WWE history, Foley is thrown from the top of a 20-foot cage down to the announcer’s table below. I’ve seen the footage often—and I still cringe every time.

During his conversation with Rabil, Foley described his mindset in that moment as “terrified," pulling back the curtain on wrestling’s physical demands and how viewers may forget that while wrestlers do portray injury even more often they must “hide just how hurt we are." Paul shares that as a lacrosse player he heard they don’t play a “real sport," but in this conversation Foley reframes it as what it truly is: “a badass game".

With a better understanding of the physical toughness needed to guard the net, Rabil sets out to explore mental toughness with Hall of Fame Princeton goalie Scott Bacigalupo. Princeton, once considered the bottom of the barrel in college lacrosse—“eighth out of seven teams," they joked—saw its fortunes change with the arrival of coach Bill Tierney. Under his leadership, the team reached its first-ever finals in more than a century of play.

In that championship game, Princeton dominated the first half, but powerhouse Syracuse clawed back to tie the game in the final seconds—thanks to a mistake by Bacigalupo while playing out of the goal. In the replay footage, you can see the college player’s body language of defeat. Even years later, Bacigalupo’s reaction while watching that moment shows how deeply that moment must’ve hit.

But in the huddle before overtime, feeling his teammates eyes on him Coach Tierney reminded Bacigalupo—and the team—that they wouldn’t even be in the finals without his performance. Coach acknowledged the mistake and urged them to move on. Bacigalupo reflects on how much that belief meant to him, and how quickly his teammates let go of the error and gave him the space to reset.

Overtime was sudden death—first goal wins. As a freshman, Bacigalupo had suffered a painful triple-overtime loss and had trained with that memory fueling his resolve. Early in OT, he made a save, continued his momentum towards a win and locked in his focus. That win came in double overtime. You could see it in his eyes: the joy, the relief. That moment would mark the beginning of a championship run for Princeton Lacrosse.

Having explored both physical and mental toughness, Rabil turns to three-time Oren Lyons Goalie of the Year Blaze Riorden for skills training. Riorden’s journey to the crease started in fourth grade, when one of his shots broke the hand of the team’s goalie. With his dad as coach, Blaze was asked to fill in—and quickly discovered that making a save could feel just as thrilling as scoring.

Because of his background as a scoring player, Riorden brought an aggressive style to the goalie position. In 2024, he made PLL headlines by scoring as a goalie—running the length of the field, just as he had done in both college and high school. In fact he brags during the episode he is three for three with his now signature coast to coast.

After establishing his bona fides, Riorden shares his pregame ritual and mindset: goalies must prepare for pain and learn to embrace failure. In fact, successful goalies successfully protect the goal around 50% of the time.

At this point, Rabil steps into the crease to test his skills, facing off against PLL All-Star Jarrod Neumann, who holds the record for fastest shot at 121 MPH. Can Paul put everything he’s learned into practice? You’ll have to watch the episode to see the surprising and hysterical result.

Rabil’s Places continues Omaha Productions’ Places series tradition providing an entry point into the world of sports by focusing on relatable characteristics and experiences in the sports world rather than statistics or gameplay analysis. Until this episode, my own exposure to lacrosse was mostly limited to hearing sports radio personality Jon “Stugotz" Weiner talk about his daughter’s games—and yet throughout this episode I didn’t feel out of my depth. In fact, I’ve now added a reminder to open ESPN+ on Friday to catch the game between the Denver Outlaws and California Redwoods.