Lacrosse is older than football (on both sides of the Atlantic). The sport, in which two teams of ten players pass a ball using a lacrosse stick (a pole of varying lengths with a netted pouch fixed to the top end) and attempt to heft it into the opponent's goal was reputedly originated by Native Americans almost a thousand years ago. By the 17th century lacrosse was widely played across America. For a time the sport featured in the Olympics. And yet it remains a niche interest compared to the younger team games played around the world. Some even poke fun. Perhaps it's the word itself, both Gallic and feminine in its formation. Or maybe it's the fact that, on the field, lacrosse appears less physical than American Football, less plainly elegant than soccer, less brutal than hockey (whose unadorned sticks seem somehow more honest), and more complicated than all of the above.
