Over the past few years, we have seen very little lacrosse action from Austin Staats, however that hasn’t stopped him from being all over the news in the lacrosse world. From fighting, to arrests, to suspensions across multiple leagues, Staats’ biggest struggle has been his inability to stay out of trouble, and control his raging temper.
Austin Staats was born in Canada and played for 2 years (2017 and 2018) at Onandaga Community College (OCC) where he led the team to be undefeated both seasons and winning the NJCAA twice. In 2017, he also won the Minto Cup and Minto Cup MVP for the OJLL. Staats declared for the NLL draft in 2018, following finishing his two years at OCC, where he was selected first overall by the San Diego Seals. He had an outstanding rookie season, where he tallied 61 points and was named NLL Rookie of the Year, however he had his rookie season end by tearing his ACL with just two regular season games remaining.
This injury seemed to be the beginning of the downfall of his professional lacrosse career. However, the rest of the hits his career would take were self-inflicted, and he has proven to be the biggest liability across all lacrosse leagues.
In 2021, Staat’s PLL contract was abruptly terminated just one game into the season following a fight off of the field between himself and another PLL player, Matt Gaudet. Video footage of the aftermath and witnesses state that Staats went as far as to bite off part of Gaudet’s middle finger. Yes, you read that right, Staats bit off part of Gaudet’s finger.
With his ACL injury and the shortened covid season, Staats didn’t see a full NLL season until 2022. However, in the final minutes of the final game of the season Staats was issued a gross misconduct penalty and given a two-game suspension to start the 2023 season. After completing a discipline and conduct program with the PLL, Staat’s contract with the Carolina Chaos was reinstated in June of 2022. He was then let go after just two games in the 2022 season and has yet to play in the PLL since.
In 2023, he played in 17 games and in 2024 he played 21 games for the NLL’s San Diego Seals, including post-season appearances. In the summer of 2023, he also competed as part of the Haudenosaunee National Lacrosse team for the World Lacrosse Championship. The team won bronze that year, and he was named Best Attacker and to the All-World Team. At this time, Austin Staats seemed to be back on track, however things were still bubbling under the surface.
In the fall of 2023, he was charged with aggravated assault. In January of 2024, his individual awards at the 2023 World Lacrosse Championships were revoked after an investigation found him testing positive for recreational cocaine usage. He was yet again suspended after blowing a cross-check to a player’s head during the 2024 playoffs. After review and discussion from the NLL, Staats was issued a 7-game suspension to start the 2025 season. During the summer (the NLL off-season) of 2024, Austin Staats was arrested (yes AGAIN) on multiple charges all related to assault. The charges include assault, threatening death/bodily harm, assault with choking, failure to comply with probation, forcible confinement, and failure to comply with release order. During the 2025 season, as Staats’ original seven game suspension was being served, the league issued an extension to be fulfilled throughout the rest of the 2025 season.
Many fans, including myself, were glad to see the extension of Staat’s suspension and hope to see his indefinite or permanent ban from the league as a whole. While one of my favorite factors of indoor, box lacrosse is the physicality, it reaches a point where it goes beyond the game and risks the safety of players. Many of his suspensions have come from altercations where he was not directly involved in the physicality of the game. For example, the fight with Gaudet where their teams didn’t even play each other that week. Furthermore, his two most aggressive and flagrant penalties in the NLL where he was issued suspensions, were both late in the game, and during a dead ball (after the referee blew their whistle and play was stopped at the time). Playing with passion and emotion can be a critical part of playing such an aggressive and fast-paced sport, and it can also be crucial to firing up teammates. Unfortunately for Austin Staats’, he seems to struggle with walking the line of playing with passion, and taking things too far. As the 2025 regular season is quickly coming to a close, it will be interesting to see if the league makes any further statements on Staats’ ability to participate in the 2026 season and what is to come for the player who was once referred to as the “best offensive player in the country” by Patrick Merrill who coached Staats for both the San Diego Seals in the NLL and the Six Nations Arrows in the OJLL.
