THE AMERICAN GAME

Heritage and privilege on the playing field.

Native Americans invented lacrosse centuries ago, but in recent years, the game has been plagued by serious problems. Price, a former Sports Illustrated staffer, meticulously explains the sport’s decidedly uneven reputation. Over a 17-year period ending in 2018, the number of people who play lacrosse increased by more than 200%. Simultaneously, the game’s image crashed. After a Duke lacrosse party in 2006, three players were falsely accused of rape; though the media response included many inaccuracies, it surfaced incidents of racist behavior by some team members. In 2010, a University of Virginia men’s lacrosse player murdered a UVA women’s player. Meanwhile, numerous players of color have recounted racial harassment from white opponents—thus the perception that lacrosse grooms bigoted bros. On a parallel track, Price explores the game’s history. To generations of Haudenosaunee—a traditional name the Iroquois reclaimed in 2021—lacrosse has been a “Medicine Game” that helps participants “deal with personal strife,” Price notes. Remarkably, in 1880, amid allegations of corruption, Canada “barred the Iroquois from their own game.” Price also charts the varying fortunes of lacrosse at America’s historically Black universities, part of a broader effort to make the game more inclusive. A Haudenosaunee team’s ongoing efforts to navigate the bureaucracy around international tournaments, including the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles, is a powerful reminder of the sport’s lineage. If the Haudenosaunee’s pending Olympic bid is successful, the troubled sport would have a big chance to improve its public standing. Price is a diligent reporter but not always a concise writer, making this book longer than necessary. There’s no need, for example, to explain to readers that Nike is a “sports apparel giant famed for its edgy marketing.”

A thorough look at a sport’s storied past, troubled present, and perhaps promising future.