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Lacrosse in Super Bowl XLIX
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Lacrosse Won at Super Bowl XLIX

Although the newspapers said that the New England Patriots defeated the Seattle Seahawks 28-24 in Super Bowl XLIX on Sunday, I think the real winner (other than Missy Elliot and Katy Perry) was the game of lacrosse.

Lax was well represented at this year’s big game, let me give you the rundown of the key connections:

Lax Family Belichik

If you didn’t know already, head coach of the Super Bowl champion New England Patriots, Bill Belichik, was a captain and defenseman at Wesleyan back in the mid 1970’s and is a huge supporter for the game of lacrosse. He also played football at Wesleyan and his dad was a coach at Navy while Bill was growing up.

His daughter Amanda is the head women’s coach at Wesleyan and his son Steve was a LSM at Rutgers before joining his dad’s staff as a coaching assistant for the Pats. Coach Belichick has also made the growth of lacrosse a key priority for the Bill Belichick Foundation, making him one of the biggest bridges to close the gap between football and lacrosse. He’s friendly with Rabil and Petro, and his lacrosse connection is undeniable!

Knighthawks in the House

A photo posted by @cjamieson88 on

Also winning, a couple of NLL all-stars were letting their faces be seen in the crowd. In attendance, and fresh off a win, was Rochester Knighthawks Cody Jamieson and Stephen Keogh.

Both Cody and Stephen brought a pretty Patriots fan with them to the game so mad props to Jammer and Keogh for making it to the Super Bowl and showing up in style!

A photo posted by Stephen Keogh (@skeogh28) on

Double Duty

Officiating the game was Bob Waggoner of Toledo, OH. Bob has been reffing in the NFL for over 14 years and this was his second Super Bowl. He is also a big time NCAA official as well and spent years assigning officials to college lacrosse games in the Midwest.

From the NESCAC to NFL

Although his team went home empty handed, Seahawks kicker Steven Hauschka caused the servers at Middlebury College to explode when he mentioned their name in his Super Bowl introduction. Hauschka was a towering attackman at Middlebury, winning 2 NESCAC titles before joining the NC State football team as a place kicker.

Fun fact: Hauschka is also related to Loyola coach Charlie Toomey!

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Did we miss any awesome lacrosse-Superbowl connections? Sound off in the comments below with you thoughts!