That’s the “Professional Bull Riders” on “Outdoor Life Network”.
The championship is going on right now in Vegas. They got like 45 of the top Bull Riders in the world.
The STARS of the thing are the bulls. People bring signs to the stadium rooting for the bulls. Here is a link to some of the bulls.
Anyway, if you’re new, the point is to stay on the bull for 8 seconds. If you do, then you get rated based on some combination of how good you looked and how well the bull performed.
The bull of the year is called Little Yellow Jacket. I’m not sure about his stats, but the runner up bull of the year is Pandoras Box. He’s only been ridden for the 8 seconds once in 35 tries this year and has bucked off 28 straight riders.
These bulls basically twitch, twist, buck and leap to get riders off their backs. They spin one way, and change direction, and pitch forward, then rear up. In slo-mo you can see the snot flying from their noses. It’s an awesome display of animal power. There are small twisty bulls. Giant, muscular leaping bulls. Bulls that fake one way, and go another.
The cowboys, meanwhile, are insane. The basically strap their hand to the bull’s shoulder so tightly they need another guy yanking on the straps. They all seem to have elbow braces because they get dislocated elbows, not to mention shoulders, knees and necks. OLN showed a guy last night (McShane or somethign) who rammed his face into the back of a bull’s head this week and had a swollen cheek and a big black eye for his follow up ride.
Anyway, live on OLN tonight at 9:00 and maybe the same time Saturday and Sunday. I think these are the last 3 days of it (and it might even be over Saturday, I’m not sure).
I’ve watched bull riding a few times, and it is fascinating, but I was struck by how low the prize money was. I mean, those guys are just barely paying the medical bills on what they’re making. I don’t get it…
Yeah, Trunk’s right. It’s no $500 - even at local rodeos, top prize is probably bigger than that.
Yes, I’ve been watching some nights, but I watched the whole season and got just a little burned out. We went to the one in Fresno in person.
The announcers keep saying that Adriano Moraes’ bicep has been torn completely off - we’re wondering if that’s true, how is he still riding? I can see that he’s in obvious pain (but that was a hell of a ride last night - 93 points), but how does your arm even flex if it’s torn off all the way? We’re debating between it being partially torn off (my position) or other muscles compensating (stepson’s position).
I like Adriano well enough - he’s sure got balls - but my favorite is Lee Akin. He’s in the finals, but not in the top five at this point. There’s still six rounds to go though, but he’d have a hard time catching up with Adriano’s points. The points are counted throughout the year - the winner of the Finals could very easily end up not being the Champion.
A few years ago, Ken Norton Jr. had a detached bicep and continued to play every week for the San Francisco 49ers. It hurts like hell, but some movement of the arm is possible. There was a lump near his elbow where the muscle came off the bone and gathered. He had surgery to re-attach it after the season.
Also, detached biceps, triceps and quads sometime happen with people taking steroids. The muscle gets bigger and the tendon that keeps the muscle to the bone can become “overworked” and snap.
Cowboy mentioned that, and we looked, but didn’t see it. Didn’t mean it wasn’t there though. Squicks me out to even think of it.
And he’s known as the buffest guy in bull riding - most of them are more on the slim side, so maybe he had more muscle to tear. They all get hurt quite a bit by the end of the season though, and he’s a hell of a man for going on with it. One cowboy is riding with a broken leg too - the fibula, I think (is that the smaller one?) and has to take his walking cast off and put his boot on to ride. Ouch!