Mohegan -

Sly And The Family Stone would love these guys. They are Everyday People. So on and so on and scooby dooby dooby. And yet they are professional athletes. Whoa, you say. This is an inherent contradiction. Pro athletes as regular folks who actually work real jobs and fly commercial?

"All of the guys in here," Kevin Buchanan was saying Sunday afternoon, "if they didn't give us a cent, we'd all still be here."

Chances are, you didn't know till this sentence that Buchanan plays for the New England Black Wolves, the region's new favorite lacrosse franchise. Buchanan is out there on weekends with his boys, running around and getting tripped, punched, boarded and slashed, not to mention having sticks jammed into many unfortunate parts of the anatomy.

And … loving it.

Kevin Buchanan also works for a living. Weekdays, he's an account sales consultant for Beckman Coulter in the Boston area. He sells medical devices. A real job. He does the lacrosse thing on the weekends. For a lacrosse "salary" of about $20,000.

Welcome to the National Lacrosse League. Average salary: 20K. Max salary: 33K. And in their other lives:

Wolves' player Ryan Hotaling is an account executive for EMC in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., selling computer hardware.

Team captain Joel White is the lacrosse brand manager for BSN Sports in New York City, a factory direct equipment company that is the largest distributor of sports team apparel and equipment in the United States.

Brian Megill is an assistant account executive at Stone Street Capital in Bethesda, Md. He works in Financial Services, servicing clients through Structured Settlements and Annuities sales processes.

Bill O'Brien co-founded and is the director of business development for Thompson Brothers Lacrosse LLC, a camps/clinics/apparel based company that promotes and celebrates the sport. O'Brien works with cousins Miles and Lyle Thompson, who are the Gretzkys of their sport.

Pretty neat, really, that Mohegan Sun is the home of the NLL and WNBA, whose athletes aren't very well known outside their respective sports, but whose salaries are similar to many of ours and whose approachable, personable demeanors are only everything we ever want from the athletes we admire.

The Wolves lost to the Colorado Mammoth (team slogan: "It's Mammoth") Sunday at the World's Most Beloved Arena, 14-12. This after Friday's loss in Toronto. This after a regular work week.

Buchanan's itinerary: "I took off work Friday, traveled to Toronto Thursday night, played a game in Toronto Friday night. Then I traveled 10 hours Saturday to get (to Mohegan), slept here, played the game (Sunday). (Today) I have to go to Florida for a three day meeting. But there's only a short window I have to do this. I wouldn't change it for the world."

O'Brien's itinerary: "(Teammate) Brett Bucktooth and I drove from Syracuse (where O'Brien lives) to Rochester and picked up (teammate) Mike Manley on Thursday. We drove to Toronto, went to bed, woke up, had practice Friday morning. Then we played. Sat morning, we woke at 7 and took a plane to Newark, drove from Newark to Connecticut, got in, watched film, ate, woke up and played today. Now I'm headed back to Syracuse."

Sorry. But if someone would be so kind to send this to Kevin Durant, who opined recently that he just doesn't have time in his busy schedule to speak with the media.

Doubtful that Mr. Durant loves his game anymore than Buchanan and O'Brien love theirs. It's just that, you know, Buchanan and O'Brien are Everyday People.

"You scratch your head at folks who won't allow time out of their day in those big time leagues for media," Buchanan said. "Ultimately - and this is my opinion - our society is driven around image. If you don't have the media to basically share your image, to make you a known face … I'm sure Nike doesn't want to drop five million a year to use your likeness if you're not known.

"Just like a lot of us. Outside of lacrosse, people don't know who we are. But if Tom Brady walks in to a room, everyone knows who he is. We don't have that. If all of us were on SportsCenter 24/7, companies would say, 'people will buy this lacrosse stick because Kevin Buchanan's face is on it.'"

O'Brien: "Just being an athlete, you have a responsibility to the fans and younger generations to give your time. I'm fortunate enough with our company to be able to give our time back. We're entrusting the next generation with the game of lacrosse. Right now, the NLL is like football in the 1950s. Guys are grinding on the weekend, but then Monday morning, they're getting their hard hats on going to work. We have the opportunity to grow the game into what the NFL is today. We're laying the groundwork."

You don't have to understand lacrosse to appreciate such blue collar personages. Go figure: We really can identify with pro athletes after all. All winter and summer at Mohegan Sun.

This is the opinion of Day sports columnist Mike DiMauro. Twitter: @BCgenius