Last night I spent an evening with my wife looking at our Christmas present from our four children a television set that is big enough that it feels like l’m watching a movie in a theater. I microwaved a bag of popcorn and settled into my recliner chair to watch the Professional Bull Riders go head to head with the best bucking bulls in our lower 48 states.

It’s one of the few sporting events for me that has it all. First the bull’s are genetically bred to buck much like Thoroughbred horses are bred to run or corn that has been genetically engineered to grow as high as an elephant's eye. And the audience gets to see athletes who are willing to try riding a bull for eight seconds that weighs 1,800 to 2,000 pounds against their 180 lbs. So if rooting for the bull gives you a thrill you’ll be right about 60% to 70% of the time that the bull rider will get bucked off and the owner’s of these bulls will be cheering right along with the crowd because the more bull riders that hit the ground the more money a bull is worth.

What kind of a young man in his prime that will tell you outright that “I’m going to get seriously hurt if I intend to make this my way to make a living.” Most will answer it’s worth it to do something only a very few will try, it’s the most dangerous sport plus the Adrenaline rush and you have a PBR Bullrider.

Then there’s the three bullfighters who show their bodies attempting to lure the bull away from the fallen rider to keep him from igoring this irritant that was on his back moments earlier but now lays on the ground in various kinds of hurt from knocked out to broken bones or hopefully still able to get up and run like HELL while the bull fighters are putting themselves in harms way try to making a path to safety for our bull rider.

Now it’s time for the two judge’s to score how well the bull bucked. A perfect bull score is 100 points which I hope will never be attained. The bull rider is also judged how well he rode the bull with a score of 100 being perfect and that is not possible but close is.

Their year is coming to an end and the best of the best are all competing for a million dollars. The champion bull is also announced after his score card shows that he might have bucked off all who attempted to ride him and failed but most years it follows like the poem says “their never was a bull that couldn’t be rode or a Cowboy that couldn’t be throwed.” Bull riding is pure Americana and everybody and all the Bulls who dazzle us with their weekly eight seconds of crowd pleasing dangerous athleticism came away thoroughly satisfied with the way they spent their day.

See Ya,

Jack