Forever an Outlaw: Denver lacrosse legend Eric Law retires

Eric Law scored 297 goals across a 13-year career. His list of accolades and accomplishments is only matched by inner-circle Hall of Famers, an elite fraternity he will join in due time.

On Tuesday, Law announced he’s officially retiring from the professional game.

“Lacrosse has been a part of my life as long as I can remember,” Law wrote in a farewell post on Instagram. “It’s shaped who I am and taught me how to compete, lead, fail, handle adversity, and, most importantly, how to get back up. …

“I walk away grateful — grateful for the opportunities, the lessons, the people and the memories that will stay with me forever. Walking away isn’t easy, but I do it with a full heart — proud of what’s behind me and excited for what’s ahead.”

Beyond the championships and All-Star appearances, his lasting legacy will be what he gave to his teammates and the sport.

In the PLL, Law became a beloved elder statesman of the game. He made a habit of tracking down the ball from his rookie teammates’ first career goal. It’s a small gesture, but Law always made sure his teammates were celebrated.

Things like this are just what Eric Law does. It’s the kind of person Eric Law is.

His off-the-field resume is almost as sterling as his accomplishments on it. He is a two-time winner of the Dave Huntley Sportsmanship Award and a one-time recipient of the Welles Crowther Humanitarian Award.

He’s given countless hours to the lacrosse community in Denver, working with Denver City Lax to provide community resources and expand the game to everyone across the city.

With his illustrious resume as a leader, teammate and ambassador for the sport, it’s easy to forget that Law was one of the most feared players of his era.

“He’s a guy that we always have to plan for when we used to play against him with Rochester,” Outlaws head coach Tim Soudan said. “You think you did a good job on him … and he always finds a way.”

In the mid-to-late 2010s, Denver became a dynastic power in professional lacrosse. Law was the tip of the spear. He thrived in his rookie campaign, finishing with 34 points in just nine games, but his second season was when both he and the Outlaws entered a new stratosphere.

With the addition of John Grant Jr., Denver surged to the second-best record in Major League Lacrosse. Law and Grant were one of the best duos in the league, with the young Denver native collecting 52 points in 14 games en route to his first All-Star appearance.

After a series of championship heartbreaks, the Outlaws finally got over the hump. Law scored a pair of goals in the final, including a clutch goal in the third quarter to halt a Rochester run.

The 2014 championship was the first of three in five years for the Outlaws, cementing them as one of the great dynasties in the sport’s history. Law played a starring role in the 2016 and 2018 championship runs.

Perhaps the defining moment of Law’s playing career came in the 2016 MLL Championship. The Outlaws were on their way to a dynasty, but midway through the 2016 season, Denver was in danger of missing the playoffs.

The Outlaws were a middle-of-the-road team scrapping for a playoff spot. Law starred, as usual, to the tune of a 47-point season, but it was a fresh crop of rookies like Matt Kavanagh and Jack Kelly who turned the tide on the Outlaws’ season.

Denver made it back to the MLL Championship, playing one of the most iconic finals in the sport’s history.

The Outlaws faced an Ohio Machine team featuring league MVP Tom Schreiber and Law’s former running mate, Grant Jr., among other future Hall of Famers up and down the roster. The teams also had to battle a deluge that caused a delay and destroyed the playing surface for the rest of the game.

The teams traded runs in a chaotic, high-flying final. With under 20 seconds to play, the game was tied at 18. Denver midfielder Jeremy Sieverts raced up the field. Sieverts ranks in the top 10 all-time in two-point goals, and many would expect him to fire away with glory on the line.

But the crafty Sieverts saw Law slicing upfield, flashing his stick through the traffic. Sieverts fired a pass into the crowd. The pass was low, but Law snatched the ball and trudged through the mushy turf at his feet and into the teeth of Ohio’s defense, diving at full extension to fire a shot.

With a heave, the ball found the back of the net. The goal cemented the Outlaws as one of the league’s great franchises and Law as one of the team’s great heroes.

For good measure, Law helped the Outlaws win a third title two years later, defeating the Dallas Rattlers and tying the MLL record for most championships by a team.

In 2019, Law joined other future Hall of Famers on the inaugural Atlas LC team. Despite an offense featuring Law, Kieran McArdle and Paul Rabil, the early Atlas never found their footing, missing the playoffs in 2019.

Despite the team struggles, Law was as good as ever. He cemented himself as one of the great off-ball attackmen to play the game. He scored 80 goals in his Atlas career, finishing with at least 27 points in three of his four full seasons.

As the Atlas transitioned into the Jeff Teat era, Law was the shepherd. Alongside Teat and Jake Carraway, he led the team to its first two postseason appearances in 2021 and 2022. While the young core rose to the top of the sport, Law stepped into the role of veteran presence.

The Atlas went all in on their youth movement with the emergence of Xander Dickson as the next great crease attackman. In 2023, he carved a role as a midfielder and rotation piece at attack. Come 2024, Dickson was the starter on the crease.

Law didn’t play the first half of that season, and he was eventually released by the team in July. While his time with New York was over, it opened the door for a perfect coda.

The new Denver Outlaws signed Law two days after he was released, giving the team a needed veteran and producer at X and giving Law another chance to play the game he’d given so much of himself to at the highest level. He played in Denver’s final six games and scored 11 goals.

The 2024 season ended with a playoff appearance, the first for the Outlaws’ young core, including Brennan O’Neill, Graham Bundy Jr. and Dalton Young. With Law helping lead the way, Denver laid the groundwork for 2025’s run to the U.S. Bank Championship.

This past season, Law played a minor role for the Outlaws following the addition of Pat Kavanagh and Jared Bernhardt to the offense. However, in the final week of the regular season, back at Peter Barton Stadium, Law got the chance to end his playing career in near storybook fashion.

In the Outlaws’ regular-season finale, Denver played the Atlas in what ended up being a championship preview. Law played a small role in the game, but the Outlaws won in dramatic fashion on Bernhardt’s game-winning goal in overtime.

In the rapturous celebrations of the hometown Denver crowd, the Outlaws were able to give Law one more moment to celebrate at a place that has meant so much to his professional and sporting life.

“What a special place this is,” Law said postgame. “I’m just so thankful to Coach Soudan and the rest of the guys for welcoming me in for one last go at this.”

Law won’t be putting on the pads or buckling in his chinstrap anymore, but he’ll continue to be a presence in this game. Whether it’s broadcasting, coaching or his work with Denver City Lax, Law finds ways to get involved.

Like the way he could slip into open space on the backside pipe, Law’s continued impact on the sport of lacrosse is as inevitable as it is unstoppable.