ProRodeo Sports News - February 23, 2018

WHATEVER HAPPENED TO ...

Traditional rodeo fans were shocked by Sid Steiner’s wardrobe,

jewelry and tattoos. He earned the

respect of fans and competitors alike by winning PRCA’s 2002 steer wrestling world championship.

PRCA ProRodeo photo by Darren Carroll

2002 steer wrestling world champ ‘Sid Rock’ living life as husband and father Sid Steiner BY TRACY RENCK S id Steiner has always done things his way. The fur-coat-sporting, jewelry-wearing, long-haired, brash cowboy with tattoos and ear-, eyebrow- and nipple-piercings had style and substance. “Sid Rock was almost an alter ego,” said Steiner, who won the 2002 PRCA world championship. “It was somebody who was part of me and I got to play, but outside of the arena I wasn’t that guy all day every day. But when the lights hit that’s who I was. He doesn’t come out very often anymore. I have to keep the tattoos, but the piercings I have taken out.” At age 28 and at the top of his game, Steiner did the unexpected. After competing in Denver and Fort Worth in early 2003, he walked away from the sport. “I always wanted to win a world title,” said Steiner, now 43. “My dad (Bobby) won a world (bull riding title) in 1973 when he was 21 and he quit that day. I remember thinking when I was a kid that’s the coolest thing. You see During his relatively short stint in the PRCA as a steer wrestler – 1995-2003 – he left an indelible mark as rodeo’s extreme cowboy – Sid Rock.

Sid Steiner celebrates after winning Round 3 with a 3.6-second time at the 2000 Wrangler National Finals Rodeo in Las Vegas. PRCA ProRodeo photo by Mike Copeman

so many guys hang on too long and don’t go out when they want to, and they can’t go out when they want to. I always admired that about my dad. It was my goal to win a world title, and I told all my friends that I wasn’t going to go anymore after I won. They thought I was kidding and I wasn’t.” BORN INTO RODEO FAMILY Sid Steiner was around rodeo since his birth. He is the product of the Steiner Rodeo Company, founded by his great-grandfather Thomas Casper “Buck” Steiner in the early 1930s. Yet Sid wasn’t engulfed in the rodeo world, as Bobby sold the rodeo company when Sid was a youngster. “I played football all through high school and when that was over I started roping a little bit,” Sid said. “The next thing I knew, my dad said,

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