Professional Bull Riding : The South's next major sports bubble

When I was on the news desk in Arizona, our sports editor loved rodeo and did some riding himself. He told me a story once about a feature he did on the Justin sports medicine team at one event. They said they hated the rodeos in California since it was not a requirement the rodeo queen knew how to ride a horse and they would inevitably falll off.

 

One of the stories I did that had the biggest payoff vs. the lowest expectationals was when I did a little feature on a guy on the circuit, coming to town for an annual PBR visit.

Did a full-length body photo, with little explainer boxes pointing to his various injuries, what they were and how they happened. He was like 26, and had horrible injuries to virtually every joint in his body. Plus a broken jaw and eye socket, and a bunch of concussions.

More balls than brains, IMO.

 

I knew two guys who covered a bull riding event in Lake Tahoe, near Pebble Beach, and a retiring bull rider walked out into the middle of the arena, pissed on the bull's face - and the rodeo clown! - and walked out to a standing ovation.
He didn't even tip his hat!!!

 

I'm guessing this isn't a league that does much drug testing.