4 brothers including Sask. Rush player face off in lacrosse game

When the Saskatchewan Rush and the Georgia Swarm battle tonight in the National Lacrosse League it will be a family affair, and possibly a world record-setting game.

It's about playing the game for the Creator.- Jeremy Thompson

Saskatchewan's Jeremy Thompson will be squaring off against familiar faces on the opposing team:Three of his brothers play for Georgia.

"I'm super stoked and excited," Thompson told CBC Radio's Saskatoon Morning.

This would be the first time four brothers have competed in a professional lacrosse game, and a Guinness World Records application has been submitted.

If anyone thinks the Thompson boys Lyle, Miles, Jerome and Jeremy will take it easy on each other, the Rush member said you couldn't be more wrong.

"I don't care if it's my brother;I don't care if it's my dad or my uncle I'm going to go out there and put my best effort out there and I'm going to do whatever it takes," Jeremy said.

Lacrosse has spiritual, cultural meaning for brothers

That competitive nature finds its roots in the backyard of the Thompson home on the Onondaga Nation near Syracuse, N.Y., where they played hours and hours of lacrosse.

"We never took it easy on each other," recalled Jeremy.

What casual a fan of the game might not understand is that lacrosse is much more than a sport for many Indigenous communities. That was certainly the case on the Onondaga Nation, where Thompson said that lacrosse is with you from the cradle to the grave.

"Right from when we are born in our crib, we are given a lacrosse stick When we pass on, we are given one in our coffin as well," said Jeremy.

"It's about playing that game and playing it for a purpose much bigger than us. For us it's about playing the game for the Creator, and for us back in our hometown it'slike a medicine to our people."

Jeremy said that when he and his brothers leave the playing surface after Saturday's game in Duluth, Ga., they will silently ask themselves a simple question: "Did you give it your all?"

Thompson knows the answer will be 'yes.'