Cowboy Up
Written by Daniel Turner, Thursday May 20 2010
PBR riders are a tough bunch. No one who rides a bull for a living can be accused of slacking. Problem with riding bulls is that they don’t like to have cowboys on their back. That’s why they try so damned hard to toss them. Along with tossing, sometimes they stomp and gore, too.
Two weeks ago Travis Briscoe tore his ACL while competing in Wichita, KA. He suffered the injury in the first round and opted out of competing after trying to gut it through the second round. For that he drew criticism from J.W. Hart, the announcer working the Versus broadcast. Hart later contacted Briscoe and offered an apology; whether the majority of folks watching the telecast of Wichita are aware of this is unlikely.
Maybe he was spurred on by Hart, but Briscoe decided to compete in Pueblo, CO last weekend. He admitted that he was uncomfortable getting up on Chick’N Fried on Friday night, but he rode the bull to a fifth place finish. On Saturday he was tossed by Wake Up Call and caused more damage to his knee. Dr. Tandy Freeman advised him not to continue.
Currently Briscoe is ranked third overall and trails Built Ford Tough Series leader Renato Nunes by 1,388.5 points. Briscoe is close enough to first place to take a chance that no less than Ty Murray feels was a risky proposition. Along with being a co-founder and board adviser of PBR Murray competed with a similar injury and knows how damaging it can be to Briscoe’s career.
Murray is also aware that PBR riders have an image to uphold. One that often causes them to ride injured when it would be wiser to sit it out. Briscoe has eight weeks before the next event in Tulsa. Hopefully that will give him enough time to heal. If not, he’ll probably cowboy up and ride injured again.
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