ProRodeo Sports News - February 23, 2018

WHATEVER HAPPENED TO ...

“But, in my book, Sid Steiner is one of the best there has ever been. He only had one world championship, but that’s just because he quit rodeoing. He enjoyed ruffling a few feathers, but he never ever did anything disrespectful. I loved to rodeo with that guy. He was high energy, and everything was always good. He was without a doubt good for rodeo. If they are talking about you at the coffee shop in Checotah, Okla., about your latest tattoos and earrings, that’s still all good. Sid knew exactly what he was doing. He’s a smart guy. He wasn’t going to push anything to disrespect anyone. He just made you open your eyes and take a step back once in a while.” Bryan Fields, who also traveled with Steiner, concurred withThompson. “As wild as Sid was in the arena, he was down to Earth as he could be outside of it,” said Fields, a five-time NFR qualifier. “There were some old guys who didn’t like the way he was doing it, but he wasn’t worried about that. He is who he is and if you didn’t like him, ‘Oh well.’ He knew he was going to make people mad, but he wanted to be his own person. Any of those people who didn’t like him never got to know who he truly was. He’s a good guy

Bulldogger Sid Steiner shows some emotion after a run during the 2002 WNFR. Steiner placed in eight of 10 rounds and tied for the fastest run of the rodeo with a 3.3-second time in Round 10 to propel him to win the average and world championship titles. He retired from the sport two months later at the age of 28. PRCA ProRodeo photo by Mike Copeman

round, allowed Steiner to vault past Myers for the world and average crowns. He finished the season with $162,516. “When I got to Vegas, I was super confident, and my horses were working well,” Steiner said. “I tried not to worry too much about what everybody else was doing. I just tried to win as much as I could on each steer, and I was so happy with the way things ended. I was at peace with what I accomplished.” LIVINGA NORMAL LIFE After his rodeo days, Steiner’s time in the sport was chronicled in the book, “They Call Me Sid Rock,” published in 2004 with author James Pomerantz. “It was fun to talk about my life to that point,” said Steiner, who earned $422,901 in his PRCA career. “I only really read the book one time, and I was 30 years old back then, and it is almost like I need to read it again, so I can laugh at myself. Rodeo was a big part of my life and I enjoyed it, but I didn’t want it to be all I was.” Now, far removed from his alter ego – Sid Rock – Steiner lives an ordinary life. He and Jamie have been married 16 years. They have two children – daughter, Steely, 16, and son, Rocker, 14. They live on a 77-acre ranch in Blanco, Texas, 50 miles north of San Antonio and 50 miles west of Austin. Steely is a barrel racer, while Rocker began riding bareback horses five months ago and competes in wakeboarding. Jamie trains horses and still barrel races. At the ranch, there are 20 bucking horses, eight barrel horses, an arena and a ski lake for wakeboarding. The family has the Steiner Ranch Steakhouse and the Tex-Mex restaurant Vaqueros, both in Austin. The Steiners, Bobby, Sid and his older brother, Shane, help run the restaurants. They also buy and sell ranches primarily in Texas. “I really focus all my attention on my kids,” Steiner said. “I also help my dad, Bobby, with our family businesses. That is pretty much my full-time schedule. I’ve been out of rodeo for a long time and it has been neat for me with Rocker riding to see howmany people from the rodeo family who have stepped in to help me – guys like Ty Murray, Kaycee Feild and Tilden Hooper, Mason Clements. It’s cool how those guys give back to the younger generation. Then with my daughter, all the other barrel racers are very helpful. “I just think that’s a cool deal with rodeo. You don’t realize until you have kids what a family it is.”

who would do anything for anybody, and he was an extremely talented steer wrestler. Sid was different, and he had a lot of people watching rodeo who probably would not have been interested in it at all. I think he brought more fans to the sport.” Sid always had the resources to foster his budding rodeo career, which expediated his transition into a star steer wrestler. “I was fortunate that my dad built me an arena, and I always had plenty of practice steers and I took things serious from the get-go,” he said. “In 1997, I think I finished 19th in the world standings, and right then I thought after only two years of bulldogging if I can finish in the Top 20 I might be able to put something together. I had a lot of help and a lot of good friends, and I tried to out-work everybody and do the best that I could.” In 1998, Sid met NFR barrel racer and his future wife, Jamie Richards, who also enhanced his rodeo talent. “She really helped me a lot with my riding and taking care of my horses,” Sid said. “That’s something I probably didn’t do a good job of before I met her. She helped me understand the more I take care of my horses, the more they are going to take care of me. She had heard stories that I was this wild guy and for a while her guard was up, but I finally won her over and she realized I wasn’t the nut everybody said I was.” Steiner made his NFR debut in 2000 and finished eighth in the world standings. His flashy wardrobe drew the attention of some, the ire of others. Following the 2000 season, he did what most people wouldn’t – he left the sport temporarily. “Jamie and I got married in the spring of 2001, and for some reason I was a little burned out on the road, so I took that season off, and really that was the best thing that ever happened to me,” Sid said. “Having to sit at home and watch the NFR after being there in 2000 made me really want it. In 2002, I came out guns blazin’ to make sure I wouldn’t miss out on it again.” Steiner had a strong regular season, arriving at the 2002 NFR in Las Vegas in seventh place in the world standings. The colorful cowboy took things to the next level at the NFR, winning the average with a 41.80-second time on 10-head. Steiner captured the world and average championships in dramatic fashion in Round 10. He clocked a 3.3-second time, which tied for a rodeo best. That run, coupled with Cash Myers’ 5.1-second performance in the

ProRodeo Sports News 2/23/18

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