When thinking of sports, most people might automatically think of the “big ones”: football, baseball, basketball and hockey.
All require players to be in peak physical form, whether it’s to withstand a 300-pound linebacker, leap in the air to catch a fly ball, take that foul shot or turn rapidly on ice to shoot a puck. Mighty feats most of us wouldn’t dream of doing, but we sure do love watching them live and on TV.
How far sports have come, not only since the advent of ESPN and Sports Illustrated, but also from ancient times, where sports meant something completely different. In those days, there wasn’t an 11th-hour touchdown pass or a trial on Capitol Hill. Instead, Romans would flock to the Coliseum to see a gladiator go up against a lion and winning meant life — and losing meant death.
Today, while some sports are still pretty dangerous in the damage they can do to their athletes, they no longer have to try and survive a round with a dangerous creature.
Until, however, the athletes known as Professional Bull Riders come up.
“It’s the only sport where you match man against beast,” says Chris Rankin. “Nothing is scripted — anything can happen.”
For the past three years, Rankin has been a tour announcer for PBR, which will return to the Wachovia Arena in Wilkes-Barre Twp. this Friday and Saturday, Feb. 22-23 for the PBR Enterprise Tour. The two days will showcase 62 bulls, 40 different riders and an almost infinite number of dangerous mishaps that can occur — though Rankin hasn’t seen anything too gory while on the tour.
“I’ve been fortunate — all I’ve seen is broken legs, broken arms, bloody noses, stuff like that,” he says, confessing, though, that he once saw a rider get his face stepped on during a rodeo.
Created in 1992, PBR has been gaining momentum over the past several years. Today, there are more than 700 members from the United States, Brazil and Australia, and the sport is one of the only professional sports to be owned by its actual athletes.
Not only has spectator interest grown in this extreme sport — especially on the East Coast, says Rankin — but so also have rider winnings. This past weekend, rider Clayton Williams of Texas earned $525,000 by winning the PBR’s Copenhagen Bull Riding Challenger Tour Championship in Oklahoma City. Rankin feels that the interest and the winnings have gone up because the sport is so dangerous.
“The money’s finally up to what the guys should be earning,” he says. “That’s what separates bull riding from baseball and football — those guys get a set salary. These guys don’t win anything unless they ride a bull.”
It’s only eight seconds …
Eight seconds might seem like a trivially small amount of time, but to the rider of a bucking bull, it’s a lifetime — and that paycheck.
Before a ride begins, the rider and designated bull are in a chute (a gated steel box) until the rider’s “riding hand” is strapped in the bull rope. The rope, which is wrapped around the chest of the bull directly behind its front legs, is what the rider grips during the ride while his other hand remains free. A metal bell hangs from the bottom of the rope to give it weight so once a rider either dismounts or is bucked off the bull, the rope will fall off the animal.
Once the chute gate opens, the rider must keep his free hand in the air and he must stay on the bull for eight seconds to receive a score. During the past few events, Rankin has seen many 10- or 11-second rides.
If a rider’s free hand comes in contact with himself or the bull, he will be disqualified. Rankin, a bull rider in his youth until he found announcing was more his “cup of tea,” thinks riding two-handed would be harder.
“Riding with one hand up, you can control your balance more because you can use your arm to work your balance which way you need to go,” he explains.
Rides are scored by two judges based on the rider’s performance as well as the bull’s. Both judges have a total of 50 points — 25 for the rider, 25 for the bull — to give out based on form and control for the rider. If the rider spurs a bull, he will get extra points (the spurs do not harm the animal, according to the PBR Web site). A bull will be judged on its power and spin, how high it kicks and the degree of difficulty.
Like other sports, bull riding has fouls that can occur. That usually means something during the ride gave the bull an advantage over the bull rider, such as the rider got brushed up against the fence or gate or the bull fell. This will give the bull rider a re-ride on another bull.
“Because the way [the judges] look at it is he didn’t get a fair shot at trying to win any money,” Rankin explains. “For a cowboy, the only way he can foul is by slapping that bull with his free hand.”
Each of Friday night’s 40 riders will ride one bull. The top 10 riders will be matched up with the night’s top ranking bulls in the championship round. Saturday will be done the same way, but with 40 different riders. The highest score over the two nights will be the overall champion.
“If he’s won enough money for the year, he can move up to the Built Ford Tough series you see on television,” says Rankin.
The money riders win during touring rounds — like what will be held at Wachovia Arena this weekend — also qualifies them for the PBR World Finals to be held in Las Vegas Oct. 31-Nov. 9. Rankin estimates that the purse for the finals will be more than $1 million.
Safety is no bull
As the only sport where it is man vs. beast — sometimes a 2,000-pound beast — safety is obviously important.
Bullfighters are in the arena to distract a bull once the rider dismounts or is thrown off after a ride so the rider can get to safety. They are also there in case the rider gets hung up, which is when the rider is tossed but his riding hand is still tied in the bull rope.
Like any athlete, an important part of a bull rider’s safety is being in shape. Their training includes watching what they eat, lifting weights and a lot of cardio.
“You can’t get winded really easy — that’s really important because that bull will tire you out quick,” Rankin says. “You can’t imagine that power that bull’s throwing at you. If you lose your wind, lose your air, you’re gone.”
As for safety gear, riders wear gloves to protect their riding hand from rope burn and a mandatory protective vest, made out of Kevlar, which is used to make bulletproof vests. The vest protects the rider’s bones and internal organs if he is stomped on or gored by a bull.
If a vest is mandatory, it poses the question that, while the cowboy hat looks good, why aren’t helmets mandatory?
“I see probably in the next two or three years, helmets are going to be mandatory, too,” Rankin says. “There’s more and more guys riding with helmets — they’re more popular than the cowboy hat now.”
Rankin feels that danger will always be major draw of Professional Bull Riders.
“Nobody wants to see anybody get killed, but they almost do, you know what I mean?”
w
go:
What: Professional Bull Riders
When: Friday-Saturday, Feb. 22-23, 7:30 p.m.
Where: Wachovia Arena at Casey Plaza, Wilkes-Barre
Tickets: $21.50-$31.50, Kids Wranglers, $5, available at the arena box office and all Ticketmaster outlets
Info on PBR: www.pbrnow.com
“It’s the only sport where you match man against beast. Nothing is scripted — anything can happen.”