Rob Pannell has had a whirlwind past year of professional lacrosse, and he’s not shying away from it.

Pannell, the 2018 Major League Lacrosse MVP and two-time All-World attackman for the U.S. national team, knew changes were coming once the Premier Lacrosse League launched in late 2018. The next summer, still under contract with the New York Lizards, he entered a season without many of his favorite teammates.

Then the Lizards started 0-4 en route to a 5-11 season. Pannell watched as his friends competed in the inaugural season of the PLL.

“It was difficult. For the first time in 21 years of playing this game, I didn’t love playing,” he told Paul Carcaterra in an interview for “Overtime,” the US Lacrosse Magazine-produced podcast. “I wasn’t having fun and it was a job. I missed my guys.”

Pannell’s contract with the Lizards ended March 1, making him a professional lacrosse free agent. It wasn’t long before the long-rumored news came to fruition that Pannell was joining his friend Paul Rabil and the PLL.

After a difficult 2019 season, Pannell feels like he’s right where he belongs.

“I think I was forgotten about for one summer,” Pannell told Carcaterra. “I’m back. Not that I need to show it, but I’m ready to show it. I expect myself to dominate just like I did in 2018, when I was MVP. I was playing at a high level and I’m going to be back at that level.”

Pannell sat down with Carcaterra on Long Island to talk about his lacrosse journey and expectations for the PLL. The podcast is available on Apple and Spotify.

In the candid conversation, Pannell shares what motivated him to compete at the highest level in college at Cornell, and what’s driving him today.

It started with the recruiting process, which did not materialize as Pannell had hoped. He received little interest from Division I coaches before committing to Quinnipiac and taking a post-graduate year at Deerfield Academy.

He was reminded of a similar situation this past year.

“I saw a photo of Lamar Jackson the other day on his draft day with his mother,” Pannell said. “He was the last one in the green room waiting to be called. That was me on July 1 of my senior year, waiting for some coaches to call and the phone didn’t ring.”

Eventually, then-Cornell coach Jeff Tambroni took a chance on a player who he’d never seen play live. Pannell shipped up to Ithaca to begin his college career.

Four years and three final four appearances later, Pannell emerged as one of the top offensive threats in the country. He joined the New York Lizards in 2012 and became an instant threat, helping his team win the MLL title in 2015.

He competed for the U.S. team in 2014 and 2018, the latter winning the gold medal thanks to his last-second assist to Tom Schreiber.

As his game soared, Pannell built his platform on social media. He’s been able to connect with the lacrosse community, primarily via workout videos, through his 100,000-plus followers. But he’s still regarded as having a reserved personality.

Pannell told Carcaterra that he continues to work on his guardedness, hoping to allow more people into his life.

“I want people to differentiate between the on-field Rob and the off-field Rob,” he said. “At Cornell, I was a three-time captain and I was a tough leader. I wish I wasn’t as tough. I think guys on the team became guarded around me, but I just wanted to be with the boys. At the end of the day, I just want to walk into a room of lacrosse guys and feel like anybody else.”

Pannell will have the chance to be part of a new club come this summer, when he enters the PLL. He’ll be hoping to get back to the form that made him one of the world’s best in 2018.