Callum Crawford says he was more of an athlete than a lacrosse player when he first entered the National Lacrosse League in 2006.

He was first introduced to the game by kids in his neighborhood in Ottawa, but there wasn’t much competitive lacrosse while he was growing up in the city. When he joined the Calgary Roughnecks, he’d only played a half season at the Jr. A level.

“I really didn’t know how to play lacrosse until I became a professional,” said Crawford, now with the New England Black Wolves. “Every year that I’ve played I’ve been able to learn something new. For a long time, I’d say my first eight to 10 years, I was learning things that guys probably got to learn throughout their minor and junior careers.”

Perhaps that’s why he’s seen such a late resurgence, developing into an MVP candidate in his early to mid-30s. It’s an improvement that’s rather unprecedented in the entire sporting world, let alone just lacrosse.

This season he’s on pace for his best year yet, having put up 27 points in just three games. While he’s unlikely to keep up this 162-point pace, smashing the previous single-season record held by Dhane Smith, he’s once again shown he’s among the best the league has to offer.

“He’s a bit of a physical specimen,” Black Wolves coach Glenn Clark said. “At 35 to be really dominating with athleticism like he does and the durability that he has, it’s pretty incredible.”

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Crawford said he thinks it was his 6-foot-3 frame that led the Roughnecks to draft him in the second round 15 years ago.

He’d spent most of his previous four years in Jr. B, split between the Gloucester Griffins and Nepean Knights, before getting a late callup in 2005 to the Six Nations Arrows. He won an OLA title with the team, then went on a run to the Minto Cup.

“I don’t know whether I contributed much besides doing some athletic things here and there,” Crawford said. “Those guys were so much better than me when I started.”

Crawford had his first breakout season in 2010, his first year with the Minnesota Swarm, when he compiled 96 points in 16 games. He was a steady contributor the next five years, jumping back into the 90s for points in 2013, but truly saw his emergence when he was traded to the Mammoth in 2016.

Since then, he’s recorded at least 75 points in every season, eclipsing the century mark twice. His 109 points last season, his 14th in the NLL, was ranked second in the league.

So, what’s the secret?

“I’m getting smarter, hopefully,” Crawford said. “So I don’t have to work as hard. That’s what allows me to keep doing this.”

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Google Callum Crawford’s name and most of the results come back to the incident last season he says will haunt him for a long time.

Late in the Black Wolves’ game against the Toronto Rock on Feb. 24, Crawford ran near goal line extended to set a pick on Toronto’s Bradley Kri. He caught the Rock defender far too high, with his right shoulder connecting square into Kri’s head. The collision sent Kri to the ground and his helmet flying.

“I’ve apologized in person to Kri numerous times,” Crawford said. “I sincerely feel terrible. He doesn’t need to accept it or should he have to. He has every right to want to break my nose, and I completely understand it. But it wasn’t intentional. I see it and I don’t even know how it got to that point.”

As a prior offender, Crawford was hit with a six-game suspension, eventually shortened to two following an appeal. It became the league’s biggest story with the appeal dragging out weeks, but Crawford kept out of the spotlight during the process, avoiding interviews.

“I’m not a person that’s big into social media things,” Crawford said. “I had to get rid of Twitter. I was like, ‘Should I continue to play this game?’”

Thankfully, Kri didn’t miss any time, easing the severity of the situation. And while the suspension was reduced, the Black Wolves still suffered by falling in both games he missed.

There’s a chance the suspension cost Crawford the MVP award too, though he made it clear he felt it went to the right player, Dane Dobbie.

Crawford was on pace for 122 points, though, seven more than Dobbie had at season's end.

“Even if I stayed in and say I would have gotten more points, he won a championship,” Crawford said. “I know it takes a team, but he steps up in moments where he deserves that MVP.”

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As a team, the Black Wolves couldn’t have asked for a better start to the year. New England is 3-0, one of two undefeated teams remaining. The Pack lead the league in goals (45) and are coming off a lopsided 21-11 victory over the expansion New York Riptide.

“It means nothing if we don’t continue,” Crawford said. “Not saying the expectations are to go undefeated or anything ridiculous like that, but we just can’t be satisfied.

“No one can be reading press. We were all trying to be motivated by nobody giving us wins early in the season. Everybody picking Toronto against us was our motivation. Now things are going the other way.”

The Black Wolves have been a consistent franchise since moving from Philadelphia, making the playoffs in each of the last four seasons. Now it’s time to take that next step.

“The only way this team is successful is that hard hat approach,” Crawford said. “I think that’s the key, focusing on the way we play the game and focusing on being the team that plays the game that way. Good things come from it.”

Andrew Kew, the third overall pick in this year’s draft, has stepped right in and made an enormous difference. His 19 points top all rookies. Doug Jamieson has made a strong first impression as a starter in cage, while Joe Resetarits, Reilly O’Connor and Stephan Leblanc are all also in the double digits in points already. On top of the scoring chart is, of course, Crawford.

That’s thanks largely to his last outing, when he gave Mark Steenhuis’ all-time single-game scoring record a run with 14 points against the Riptide.

“He still is being such a physical, dominant player,” Clark said. “Usually that starts slowing down when you start getting to 33, 34, 35. But he doesn’t appear to be at all. In fact, he almost appears to be getting better.”

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Today, there’s more of a lacrosse infrastructure in Ottawa thanks to the Ottawa Capitals Lacrosse Club, co-founded by Crawford and Jay Fox, and a strong showing from the Nepean program. It’s helped produce a new wave of Ottawa players, including JP Kealey, Ryan Fournier, Nick Finlay and most recently, Jake Fox.

There’s far less of a learning curve for the Ottawa player now.

“There’s just been so many hardworking people in Ottawa that have dedicated themselves to trying to change the game and provide opportunity,” Crawford said.

Crawford moved to the United States to take a coaching job in Tulsa, furthering the sport again in an area with little infrastructure. Lacrosse isn’t a varsity sanctioned sport in Oklahoma yet, but players have started to get collegiate interest.

“I’ve been there. I understand the value of people being there to help you with the recruiting process,” Crawford said. “NCAA lacrosse is very realistic for everybody. It’s just about finding that fit academically, athletically.”

He’s staying in top shape working out with Fournier, a former teammate and now co-worker, with that elusive championship always in the back of his mind. He thinks about players like Dobbie who came up big in the clutch, or how Michael Jordan tops LeBron James thanks to the rings he accumulated.

Without a title, his legacy is incomplete.

“This is Year 15. I’ve never even been to a final,” Crawford said. “To be recognized as a very good player to have been involved in this league, I think you need championships to go with it, or at least a championship.”