Professional Golf Is Trying So Hard To Be Pro Lacrosse Right Now
Let me run a little scenario by you all real quick.
Let's say there is a professional sports league which has, more or less, been the biggest and most successful league for that specific sport. That's not to say that everybody loves the way the league handles their business, but everybody just assumed it would be the only professional league that could exist in that sport.
Then one day a bunch of players from that league are fed up with the way things have been going, and realized the only way they could all make some more money and put themselves in a better situation was if they created a new breakaway league. They tried to get the former league to change their way for a few years leading up to that moment. Whispers were in the air that the new breakaway league would be forming eventually, but nobody ever took it seriously because they could never envision another league taking over. But eventually the time came to pull the trigger, and the new league was formed.
Less than 2 years later, the former league came running back with their tails tucked between their legs because the other league ruled so hard, and decided that a merger between the two leagues was the only option left.
Does that sound like anything to you?
Oh, that's right. Pro lacrosse already did it with the PLL and MLL.
Listen, I'm not trying to say that professional lacrosse invented the merging of two competing leagues. We've seen it throughout all the major sports. The American League and National League signed an agreement in 1903 to form the MLB. The NFL and AFL announced their merger in 1966 and it became official in 1970. The NBA and the ABA merged in 1976. And the NHL and WHA merged together in 1979.
But most of us weren't around for those mergers. They were done before the internet existed. So in my opinion, they don't count. Professional lacrosse wrote the blueprint for how to create a breakaway league and then make the original league come begging for a merger in the modern age. And professional golf just sat back, studied the blueprint, and copied it word for word. I mean they also added in taking money from the Saudi government into the mix, but that's about the only original thing golf has done with this whole situation. Everything else from the PGA Tour vs LIV civil war was a complete rip-off from professional lacrosse.
All I'm saying is that if anything that happened today in the world of golf was shocking to you, it really shouldn't be. Because lacrosse already did it. The sport of the future continues to pave new ways forward for sports of the past.
P.S. -- Phil on the phone with Jay Monahan today.