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

[Evil ... Thy name is Orville Redenbacher!!]

Professional Bull Riding.
You can count the days until NASCAR and Football fans start tuning in ...

While the U.S. Border Patrol has come under fire for its treatment of immigrants, several Professional Bull Riders, including 2016 champion Cooper Davis, rode horse patrol with agents on July 11. The agents apprehended seven migrants along the Mexican border; another dove into the Rio Grande river to escape.

When state lawmakers in Montana shot down a proposed “Day of the Cowboy” due to complaints the term is sexist and racist, PBR Chief Executive Officer Sean Gleason threatened to end his league’s lucrative, 24-year old event in Billings. The state legislature caved. And Gleason was named chairman of the National Cowboy Council.

Meet the most politically incorrect pro sports league in America: the flag-waving, Border Patrol-sponsored cowboys of PBR.
...
Almost all pro leagues go out of their way to avoid touching the third rail of politics. PBR, on the other hand, stomps on it with their cowboy boots.

The league is unabashedly pro law enforcement and military. When a haunting photo of a dead migrant father and his tiny daughter on the banks of the Rio Grande went viral, Gleason sprang to his sponsor’s defense. He posted a video of “hero” agents saving a drowning 13-year old migrant boy from the same river. The Border Patrol has sponsored PBR since 2016.

Previously, the PBR boss blasted the attempt to banish the term “cowboy” from polite conversation. Especially in the Big Sky Country of Montana, where President Donald Trump won the Western state by a 20% margin in the 2016 Presidential Election.

“If we can have an ‘International Day of the Woman,’ why can’t we have a day that acknowledges the most iconic symbol of American history, in a state that’s uniquely associated with the lifestyle?” Gleason wrote on Facebook. “I guess the PC culture we have devolved into, waging war on all forms of masculinity and even the Founding Fathers, has now turned its attention to attacking cowboys.”

When Kaepernick kneeled to protest racial injustice in 2016, PBR stars counter-protested his protest. The league’s top 35 riders signed a pledge vowing to stand respectfully during the presentation of Old Glory and singing of “The Star-Spangled Banner.”

Three years later, Gleason doesn’t think there’s a “snowball’s chance in hell” an American or foreign-born PBR rider would take a knee during the playing of the American, Mexican, Brazilian, Canadian or Australian anthems. The issue would be dealt with swiftly.

The southern Bubbas who root for 'Bama - Roll Tide - on Saturday and were part of Jr. Nation on Sunday, will no doubt start getting into PBR.
Book it.

Meet The Most Politically Incorrect Sports League in America

Personally, I prefer Mutton-Busting.

 

[Oggiedoggie]

Ryan Dirteater, a Cherokee from Hulbert, OK, is ninth on the PBR money list.

 

[Inky_Wretch]

That's funny, because many of the top PBR guys are foreigners. And the PBR base doesn't care for it one bit.

 

[playthrough]

Would be fun to be in Vegas one time for the PBR finals, not just for the event but to see that crowd at the casinos. They're legendary for tossing around tons of money.

 

[TrooperBari]

That's funny, because many of the top PBR guys are foreigners. And the PBR base doesn't care for it one bit.

One of the rarely-discussed areas of overlap in the Venn diagram between bull riding and sumo wrestling.

 

[tapintoamerica]

Here's the most disturbing fact in that story: 1 of every 15 rides results in injury. There is no definition of "injury" regarding severity in the piece, but this story says bull riding is 10 times more dangerous than football.

 

[swingline]

A 2,000-pound bull is much more dangerous than a 300-pound defensive lineman. Simple matter of physics.

 

[Inky_Wretch]

Here's the most disturbing fact in that story: 1 of every 15 rides results in injury. There is no definition of "injury" regarding severity in the piece, but this story says bull riding is 10 times more dangerous than football.

Bullriders are constantly injured. They use two full rolls of athletic tape on the arm they use to hold onto the rope just to keep their fingers, wrist and elbows from pulled loose. Shoulder injuries are so common nobody talks about them. And that's just the stuff you have to deal with after a successful ride.

Get thrown and it can get much, much worse.

 

[Moderator1]

Bullriders are constantly injured. They use two full rolls of athletic tape on the arm they use to hold onto the rope just to keep their fingers, wrist and elbows from pulled loose. Shoulder injuries are so common nobody talks about them. And that's just the stuff you have to deal with after a successful ride.

Get thrown and it can get much, much worse.

They brought that circuit to Richmond years ago - and the event was a Memorial so I decided to do a story on the person who was being memorialized. Died young, while riding a bull. Crazy dangerous. Hell, you ride for eight seconds if you are lucky but the bull doesn't react to the horn and just stop trying to toss your ass. YOU STILL HAVE TO GET OFF.

One guy gets thrown forward and his vest gets caught on the horns and he hangs over the bull's face. Now the bull is scared and can't see. He starts slamming the guy repeatedly into the boards and it took a long time to get him freed as several of the "clowns" and others came in to help.

Not sure why anybody does that ****.

 

[swingline]

Almost all of the top riders are small guys, which is why my uncle went no further than county fairs and such back in the ‘70s. He said a small bull was harder to ride than a big one because a small bull was much quicker. I saw him get hurt riding a small spotted bull, and that pretty much cured me of wanting to try it.

 

[Inky_Wretch]

Almost all of the top riders are small guys, which is why my uncle went no further than county fairs and such back in the ‘70s. He said a small bull was harder to ride than a big one because a small bull was much quicker. I saw him get hurt riding a small spotted bull, and that pretty much cured me of wanting to try it.

Growing up around rodeo, I tried it a couple times. At 6-3, I was told by a former NFR world champion to switch to steer wrestling or roping if I wanted to rodeo. Obviously, I did not.

 

[cyclingwriter2]

Made me think of this great sport:

 

[Shropshire Slasher]

The “buckle bunnies” at these events are legendary.

 

[Azrael]

I've done many stupid things for stories over the course of my career.

Perhaps the stupidest of which was to work a week as a rodeo clown at the National Western Stock Show.

Yahoo, etc.

 

[Scout]

I give you the Ram Scramble.

Saw this in Ft. Worth. So, they must use the same ram over and over because the ram I saw had been to this BBQ before. It goes charging around the place running from these kids, but occasionally it would charge at an unsuspecting toddler. The ram would undercut the toddler and send the poor kid literally ass over tea kettle into the air. It was amazing to watch.

I did not think you could combine animal and child abuse into an event, but it was glorious to watch.

Vote Trump. Lol

 

[Inky_Wretch]

Out for a fun night with the family at the rodeo? Had a few beers? Well, how would you like to play cowboy poker? Last one still in the chair wins.

 

[playthrough]

Out for a fun night with the family at the rodeo? Had a few beers? Well, how would you like to play cowboy poker? Last one still in the chair wins.

That guy at the end of the table looks the most calm before the bull arrives, which is amazing considering he's in the "oh sh*t" seat.

And that entire thing is awesome.

 

[tapintoamerica]

This is even more Trumpist than a sport that once held an event called the NRA 400.

 

[Iron_chet]

I live in Rodeo country and the annual Stampede is a huge event where everyone in the city is ****faced for 10 days. The rodeo money is huge. This year they tried this and apparently was just a complete gong show.



Then there is this which is about 30 minutes from where I live. $10 to enter and they don't check how sober you are.

 

[X-Hack]

Used to go to the PBR event at the Worcester Centrum every year back in the 90s and 2000s. Interesting night out. The bullriding got kind of boring and repetitive after a while but the crowds were interesting -- it's New England where to my knowledge there isn't a lot actual rodeo, but there's a lot more redneck types in non-touristy, economically depressed parts of small-town Central and Western Mass., and rural New Hampshire, Connecticut and Maine than people realize, and they'd come in droves. It was highly politicized then too, at least once Bush was president and especially after we invaded Iraq. Lots of explosions and U-S-A in the opening ceremonies, along with Toby Keith's "We'll stick a boot in your ass" song. Good times. And the action coming out of the chute was a lot more fierce than what I saw at Cowtown Coliseum in Ft. Worth, though those were the touring pros as opposed to locals.