Last Saturday night I had the pleasure of attending the PBR
(Professional Bull Riders) Velocity Tour event at Verizon Arena in North Little
Rock. The Velocity Tour is kind of like the minor leagues for the PBR Tour with
a bunch of young guns trying to reach the summit of their sport. I had never
watched a PBR event in person and hadn’t even so much as watched more than a
few minutes of one on television. However, I always had a great respect for
bull riders, commonly referred to as cowboys, because what they do is obviously
spectacular and something that I could never imagine myself doing. A lot of my
respect for the sport of bull riding, despite never having much knowledge or
viewing of it, likely comes from all of the great rodeo country music songs I
grew up loving by artists like Garth Brooks, George Strait and Chris LeDoux who
really do capture the romance and beauty of a cowboy riding a bull. And, it’s a
romance and beauty that is so quick, so over in a matter of seconds that it’s
really hard for the brain to almost comprehend. Eight seconds of almost
anything seems like nothing. Hell, eight seconds occur seven and a half times
every single minute. But, I’m betting that eight seconds on a bull for some of
these cowboys can seem like an eternity, with that massive beast bucking and
twisting and turning wanting nothing more than to fling the cowboy from his
back and then stomp his brains out for having the audacity to attempt to ride
him. It’s likely the most thrilling eight seconds in sports. And, it’s
something that I don’t believe gets enough attention, enough respect from
sports fans around the country. I understand that bull riding might not be
everybody’s cup of tea, hell, I previously stated here that I’d never given it
too much thought, but do yourself a favor and watch just a bit of this on
television or even better, like I did, in person and you’re going to find out
that when it comes to tough as nails athletes, there might not be any tougher
than those cowboys who make a living trying to best hell-fire in the encasing
of a 2,000 pound bull.
