Jeffrey Wright is doing something unusual: selling a sport by remembering how he fell in love with it as a kid. The Oscar-nominated actor appears in a two-minute promo for Sunday’s ABC telecast of the Premier Lacrosse League championship game between the Denver Outlaws and the Philadelphia Waterdogs, cradling a vintage wooden lacrosse stick.
Wright’s lines are simple and personal. “Nobody ever tells you this when you’re young, but the things you love first – they never leave you,” he says, leaning into the idea that childhood passions linger even when grownups forget them.
Wright’s Time At Amherst
The promo does not name Wright’s college career directly. But he did not need to. Last spring, he posted about lacrosse on Instagram, sharing vintage photos — including one of himself playing at Amherst College in the mid-1980s.
He connected the sport to Paul Rabil, the PLL’s founder and commissioner, who starred at Johns Hopkins. Wright wrote that Rabil had brought the game back into his life. “He’s got me thinking lax lately – like some days, all day. He put a stick back in my hand not long ago, after many years not playing at all. My love for the game and how much it’s meant to me came rushing back.”
The promo runs on linear TV and digital platforms alike.
The Funding Behind The League
The PLL has been building toward this moment for years. Glen Powell and Rob Mac were two of several investors in a $100 million funding round that closed in June. ESPN, which also owns a stake in the league, said TV ratings for the summer season were up 27% over 2025 levels. A game in August drew a record audience of 612,000 viewers.
Lacrosse has been added as an official sport at the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. Founded in 2018, the league’s most recent funding round valued it at more than $500 million, according to press reports.
A Nostalgic Pitch
The promo leans on nostalgia rather than argument. It is not a primer on how to play. It is not a list of teams or stars. It is a man holding a stick, talking about how much the game meant to him when he was young.
That is a smart move for a sport that has spent years building its audience. Wright is not telling you what the PLL is. He is telling you what it feels like to care.
The Numbers Behind The Game
| Metric | 2025 | 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| TV ratings | Base | Up 27% |
| August audience | Not stated | Record 612,000 |
| Funding round | Not stated | $100 million |
| Investor | Role | Stake |
|---|---|---|
| Glen Powell | Investor | PLL |
| Rob Mac | Investor | PLL |
| ESPN | Investor | PLL |
| Paul Rabil | Founder/commissioner | PLL |
The promo runs Sunday on ABC. Wright’s lines, delivered quietly, are the pitch. He is not asking you to learn the rules. He is asking you to remember what it felt like to be young and in love with something.
That is a hard sell to make. It is also a pitch that rests on a personal memory rather than a new argument.
The championship game airs Sunday. The promo has done its job. Whether that love translates to a Sunday evening in front of the TV remains to be seen.
The record August audience and the rising TV numbers suggest the league is moving in the right direction. But a championship broadcast is a live test. Wright’s promo asks viewers to trust that the game is worth watching because it is worth loving.
Whether that love translates to a Sunday evening in front of the TV remains to be seen.
See the video the story is built around at Deadline.
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