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Connor Fields follows only one person in lacrosse on social media: Connor Fields. 

“The only real connection I have to lacrosse is him,” Connor Fields said.

Confused? So are the people who tag Connor Fields, @connorfields11, the 27-year-old Olympic gold medalist BMX racer, in posts about Connor Fields, @connorfields05, the 24-year-old all-star attackman for the PLL’s Chaos LC. Fields, the lacrosse player, is also the favorite to win the NLL’s rookie of the year honors this season after putting up 15 goals and 23 assists in 11 games so far for the San Diego Seals. 

“It’s pretty crazy, isn’t it?” the four-time All-American lacrosse player asked. 

It is. There’s even a caveat on his Wikipedia page. 

For the professional BMX racer, see Connor Fields. 

“It’s not necessarily a super common name,” the BMX racer said earlier this week while taking a break from his preparations for the Lone Star Nationals in Houston that start on Friday. “It’s not like we’re named Mike Smith or something like that.”

Both athletes started making waves in their sports around the same time and have followed each other’s ascents to the peaks of their professions from afar ever since. When Fields won Team USA’s first ever Olympic gold medal in BMX racing in 2016, the other Fields was preparing for his sophomore year at Albany after he scored a Division I freshman record 66 goals the previous season. Their mentions blew up. 

“I was thinking of commentating back, ‘Thank you,’ but obviously that’s not my place,” the lacrosse playing Fields said. “I usually just tell them, ‘Wrong guy,’ and send them Connor’s way.” 

The misplaced mentions have persisted even after the lacrosse playing Fields created a new Twitter account when his previous one got hacked at the PLL All-Star Game in Los Angeles. While less frequent than when someone spells their name with an “e” instead of an “o,” the mix-ups on Twitter and Instagram happen at least a few times every month. 

Fields (BMX) recently played along. 

“Yeah good times playing for @UAlbanyMLax we crushed it,” he replied to a tweet last week from an Albany alum that reminisced about when the Great Danes were the number one team in the country. 

The alum replied and thanked Fields, the BMX racer, for playing at Albany. 

“Come on guys, open your eyes,” Fields would like to say sometimes. “Look at the [profile] picture. It’s completely different.” 

But both Fields' said the confusion is more amusing than annoying. It’s also informative. Each previously had no knowledge of the other’s discipline, but they have developed an appreciation for the other’s accomplishments. Fields learned that the University of Albany has a lacrosse team and that there’s such a thing as professional lacrosse. Fields discovered how dominant Fields is on the BMX track, because the mentions peak after race wins. 

“The extent of my bike riding was around the neighborhood to my buddy's house,” the lacrosse player said. “Going around a D guy in lacrosse is probably a lot easier than the stuff he is doing.” 

They’ve exchanged periodic messages over Twitter.

“Hey man do you get tagged in my stuff as much as I get tagged in yours?” Connor Fields asked Connor Fields.

They even talked over the phone once around five years ago. After sharing a laugh Connor Fields told Connor Fields to keep crushing it. They have. 

They also share a flair for the dramatic. 

“I watch in amazement,” the program director for USA Cycling told the New York Times in 2012 about the way Fields handles his bike around the track. “You can’t teach that.”

You could say the same thing about the moves Connor Fields pulls on a lacrosse field. During the Chaos’ second game this past summer, Fields duped Atlas defenseman Callum Robinson with a behind-the-back fake that made SportsCenter’s Top 10.

“Connor Fields is a magician,” the PLL tweeted along with the highlight. They did not tag him in the post. Perhaps that’s for the best. 

Beyond their shared initials, Connor Evan Fields (the BMX racer) and Connor Ethan Fields (the lacrosse player) have faced similar obstacles. 

BMX Fields suffered a meniscus injury in 2011 and missed the first half of the season a year before he advanced to the final round of competition at the 2012 Olympic Games in London. Lacrosse Fields played part of his senior season at Albany on a torn right ACL before undergoing surgery in August 2018. 

After he played in a few games for the Seals last season, Fields reemerged in the summer as one of the best players in the world. He averaged 3.3 points per game for the Chaos, who secured the No. 1 playoff seed, and his 22 goals tied for second in the league. 

When Fields’ friend, who’s a reporter for Front Office Sports, covered the Seals while they were in Las Vegas in February, he knew just what to text him. 

“Connor Fields is my favorite player.”

Although the BMX racer lives in Las Vegas and is a diehard Golden Knights fan, that’s not the case with lacrosse. He’s never been to a game. That might change soon. He’ll be in Chula Vista, Calif., later this month for a training camp at the USA Olympic Training Center.

“I might reach out to Connor and try to go to a Seals game,” he said. “If we’re both there, maybe we could swap jerseys and take a picture.” 

Maybe that will clear things up.