ProRodeo Sports News - Feb. 18, 2022

EDITOR’S LETTER TRACY RENCK ProRodeo has never been more worth watching

T he PRCA would never be confused with the goliath that is the NFL. Rodeo isn’t a halftime show with glitz. Rodeos are no-nonsense family entertaining events that bleed patriotism where a handshake is as good as gold. Watching Super Bowl LVI between the Los Angeles Rams and Cincinnati Bengals on Feb. 13 was entertaining. The state-of-the art SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, Calif., was packed with 70,240 spectators and had an average audience of 112.3 million viewers across TV and streaming platforms. Then, there was the Super Bowl LVI halftime show featuring rappers Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, Eminem, Kendrick Lamar, and singer Mary J. Blige. This type of extravaganza is expected from the NFL, which as recently as 2020, had its 32 teams generate $12.2 billion. The NFL is its own money-generating monster. No other sport compares. Not Major League Baseball. Not the NBA. Certainly not NASCAR. However, fans who don’t watch rodeo don’t know what they are missing. Rodeo is like hockey – not because of the toughness of the athletes, which I would give the nod to cowboys – because it is a sport that needs to be seen in person to truly appreciate. “Rodeo is Americana type of people, and freedom is our thing,” said award-winning rodeo clown/barrelman John Harrison last year in the June 25 edition of the ProRodeo Sports News. Harrison is right. Rodeos are about 5-foot-6, 150-pound cowboys trying to conqueror

standout animal athletes like 1,500-pound rank bulls and 1,000-pound bareback and saddle bronc horses for eight seconds in the original version of extreme sports. And, timed-event cowboys displaying unmatched skills in steer wrestling, team roping, tie-down roping and steer roping. When these events are done right it is poetry inmotion. For every football player like Matthew Stafford, Aaron Donald, and Cooper Kupp of the Los Angeles Rams – ProRodeo has its own superstars who the younger generation can identify with. A superstar like five-time PRCAWorld Champion StetsonWright, who is all of 22, and is the reigning three-time all-around world champ. Wright is the modern-day version of Ty Murray and well on his way to joining Murray in the ProRodeo Hall of Fame in Colorado Springs, Colo. Then there’s 2020 PRCA Tie-down Roping World Champion Shad “Money” Mayfield, who is 21. How about two-time saddle bronc riding world champ Ryder Wright, Stetson’s brother, who is 23. Don’t forget reigning world champion record-setting steer roper Cole Patterson is 26. There’s a theme here of youth and that will likely continue with 18-year-old young guns – bareback rider Rocker Steiner, saddle bronc rider Statler Wright and tie- down roper Riley Webb now in the PRCA fold.

Tracy Renck is the editor of the ProRodeo

Sports News . He previously served more than seven years as a media coordinator at the PRCA. He has three decades of experience in sports journalism with the last several consumed by ProRodeo.

Skeptics see rodeo as a niche sport. Everybody has the right to their own opinions, but rodeo deserves to be mainstream viewing. Give it a chance.

ProRodeo Sports News 2/18/2022

ProRodeo.com

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