Philly Can Now Add Another Championship Loser To The List As The Waterdogs Officially Become Philadelphia's PLL Team
After 5 years of being a bunch of homeless bastards, PLL teams finally have homes.
For the first 5 seasons of the league's existence, they've been operating on a touring model. No home games, no away games, just all 8 teams in the league going to the same, different city each weekend and putting on 2-3 days worth of games. It was a great way to start up right away and generate some new interest in the game. But it was kind of like the sport of lacrosse was going away to college for a few years to just have a bunch of fun. The time has finally come for them to grow up now and set some roots down for themselves. So now all 8 teams officially have home locations for the first time, and we also got the rebirth of an old MLL team.
The Boston Cannons, New York Atlas, Philadelphia Waterdogs, and Maryland Whipsnakes will make up the Eastern Conference. The Carolina Chaos, Utah Archers, Denver Outlaws (back from the dead, but RIP to Chrome LC) and California Redwoods will make up the West. We went ahead and broke down all of our immediate reactions about all the new teams on this episode of The Crease Dive. You can listen to that right here.
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But what I'm really here to talk about right now is yet another team coming over to the City of Runner-Ups, with the Waterdogs finding their home in Philly.
Now to be fair, the Waterdogs did win a championship in the 2022 season. There are 8 teams in the league and only 4 of them have won a championship so far, so it's pretty rad that Philly has one of them. With that being said…you knew the moment that the Aqua Pups lost the 2023 PLL Championship to the Archers that this team was destined for Philly.
The 2022 World Series Philadelphia Phillies. The 2022 MLS Cup Philadelphia Union. The Super Bowl LVII Philadelphia Eagles. And now the 2023 PLL Championship Philadelphia Waterdogs.
There's not a city in America better at crushing your heart the moment you decide to let your hopes up. It just feels right for this team to be in Philly now. And you know what? I wouldn't want it any other way. Because Philly sports teams build character. There's not another city in America that has more character than Philly. We've built up so much scar tissue along the way that we'll last forever. Philly fans will always show up, Philly fans will always be passionate, and Philly fans will always be ready to get our hopes up yet again because what good is life if you never let yourself believe? And every so often, it's all worth it.
Like the 2008 Phillies. Like the Super Bowl LII Eagles. Like the 2022 Waterdogs which we can no retroactively claim as another title for Philly. We may get our hearts ripped out of our chest a lot, but that just makes it even more glorious during the handful of times that we get the job done. And considering how much of a wagon the Waterdogs are, I'm going to assume there are going to be a lot more titles coming our way over the next few years. Maybe that'll be the spark the rest of the city needs to all get over the hump, too.
WOOF! WOOF! WOOF!