This afternoon the Boston Cannons released the following: Boston Cannons Update on June 27 Trade BOSTON, MA – The Boston Cannons have released the following statement regarding the June 27 trade with the New York Lizards: “Recently acquired midfielder Dave Lawson has informed the Boston Cannons that he intends to file retirement paperwork with Major League Lacrosse and will not join the team this season. The Cannons were not made aware of his intentions prior to the trade. We respect Dave’s decision and wish him well after a great MLL career. In addition, midfielder Chris LaPierre has elected to not report to the team and the Cannons will gain an additional roster spot. The Boston Cannons are appealing to Major League Lacrosse to address additional compensation for the June 27 trade with the New York Lizards.” ***   Wow. Then as LSN’s Lacrosse Now show came on at 5:00pm LSN analyst (and Boston Cannon midfielder) Josh Hawkins came on and basically said that New York knew that Lawson would retire if traded and they still went ahead and made the trade! Double Wow. Assuming Hawkins is right . . . I don’t know who to blame more . .  . Boston for not doing more due diligence and protecting themselves contractually . . . New York for pulling this stunt without thinking how badly it will play in the media (if this was the NBA, etc., it would be pretty much the lead story on ESPN News) . . . or the league for not insisting on an ethical approach between teams when they deal with each other and not having clear rules for this sort of thing. Or maybe all 3 deserve some derision and criticism. I’m writing this without being able to ask a lot of people questions.  I’ve reached out to MLL for a comment and will include it in updates if I get one. ***   The league now faces an interesting dilemma. Frankly, if the league investigates properly and determines New York took advantage of knowledge that Lawson and LaPierre would not report then the league has to come down hard on the Lizards.  In all other major leagues the trades are basically dependent on the players passing a physical; otherwise the trade is voided.  In this league, with the issue of it not being a full time job for the players, the trades should only be approved after the league has determined the players will honor the swap and if they cannot commit to doing that the trade should not be approved.  And if a player is not honest with the league then a suspension of that player is justified. So, if NY has taken advantage what would be the proper response from the league? Is it not right to consider banning the offending GM from the league?  Professional sports league General Manager’s certainly do everything they can to give their team a competitive advantage, but those leagues have strong front office infrastructures and have faced this situation before (and therefore has experience ruling on this type of scenario) and an attempt to ‘swindle’ another team would cause a number of consequences, including forfeiture of assets and the loss of trust by their fellow GM’s.  This is a major problem if the GM’s can’t trust each other when this type of trade implosion is possible. Frankly, if the league punished NY with the loss of the entire 2018 College Draft I would not have a problem with it. Either way, the league needs to get on top of this right now.  And all possible rule changes necessary to make sure this never happens again needs a quick writing . . .