ProRodeo Sports News - February 23, 2018

“Sid Rock was almost an alter ego. 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.” -– SID STEINER

Steer wrestler Sid Steiner clocked a 4.9-second time to tie for sixth in Round 1 of the 2000 WNFR. PRCA ProRodeo photo by Mike Copeman

‘There’s a guy who hauls cattle for us that steer wrestles and he thinks you would be good at that.’ I started going over to his house and jumping steers and running them on the ground, and before I knew it I bought my (PRCA) card and never looked back.” The 5-foot-10, 190-pound Sid thought steer wrestling as a career choice was the last path he would follow. “I never even really paid attention to steer wrestling,” he said. “We sold the rodeo company when I was like 6 or 7 years old, my dad never talked about (rodeo) and we didn’t have pictures up in my house. My dad turned into a baseball coach and football coach, and we waterskied all the time. I never

watched rodeo growing up, and when I went over and started bulldogging it was like football. It was action-packed and had contact. I took to it pretty fast.” When Sid first joined the PRCA he didn’t shake things up, but that didn’t last long. “I played by the rules to feel my way around, but as I got better and more confident I was always drawn to the athletes in other sports

who were their own guy,” Sid said. “Just because I was in the cowboy sport I could still be myself. I always looked up to Brian Bosworth and the guys in sports who had personalities. I thought if I could be good enough at something I want to have fun like that.” Bosworth, nicknamed “The Boz,” was a two-time All-American linebacker at the University of Oklahoma (1984-86) and played briefly with the Seattle Seahawks (1987-89). “The bigger the rodeo, the wilder I got,” Steiner said. “I liked to do my own thing and stand out. When I started rodeoing, I didn’t feel like I needed to change because I was in a certain sport. I was who I was.” RUFFLING FEATHERS Sid acknowledged the old-school cowboys didn’t embrace his flamboyant personality. “I would always hear things that people were saying about me and my deal was like, everybody has their opinion,” he said. “Usually people would meet me and would say, ‘I didn’t think I was going to like you.’ There are a lot of guys who are my really good friends now, and they have told me they didn’t want to like me and they didn’t think they would like me. Turns out, we had a lot more in common than what they thought.” Fellow steer wrestler and traveling partner FrankThompson, the 2000 steer wrestling world champ, cherishes his friendship with Steiner. “Sid Steiner and I are about opposite as you could be,” said Thompson, 50. “I would have never thought we would be friends. I come from a little place in (Buffalo) South Dakota. He is different than what he portrays. He’s as good as gold. You either loved him or hated him or loved to hate him. He was a tremendous athlete. He liked the shock factor like when he had cornrows.

Sid Steiner’s family, left to right, daughter, Steely; Sid; son, Rocker, and wife, Jamie, spend a moment together. Photo courtesy Steiner family

ProRodeo Sports News 2/23/18

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