Does the sports media dis rodeo?

The cows have names, and I know you can find the names of the top bulls from the PBR on the PBR Web site.

 

And, as was vehimently pointed out to me, they are not cows. There are no cows in rodeo. There are bulls, steers and calves, but no cows.

 

Yea, that too

 

And the NPRA is the Northwest Professional Rodeo Association, a regional circuit located mostly in Washington, Oregon and Idaho.

The PRCA (Pro Rodeo Cowboy Association, I think anyway) is the main nationwide group.

The PBR is the Professional Bull Riders tour. A lot of the cowboys who ride in PBR events are also active on the PRCA circuit.

 

>>>The cows have names, and I know you can find the names of the top bulls from the PBR on the PBR Web site.<<<

Yeah, baby! Bodacious, Yellow Jacket, Fender Bender, Boogerman, Blueberry Wine, Werewolf Snuff ... Shoot, I'm more familiar with the bulls' names than the riders (who the most courageous guys in sports). Great names - kinda like Funny Cars used to be "back in the day."

(My wife's the furthest thing from what you'd expect a bull-riding fan to be, but she's glued to this stuff when she sees it on TV. We actually went to see it in person when one of the PBR's minor league versions came through town earlier this year. Place was packed - 'bout 3,500 ticket buyers, so there's obviously interest ... and we didn't staff a bit of it, but probably should at least do a rider feature or somethin'.)

 

We've already got someone who stars in an eight-second main event, thanks.

 

Rodeo gets exactly the play the public demands -- very little, maybe good for a feature once in a while. It's a niche sport. ESPN was showing a polo match this afternoon. It is to the rich and affluent like rodeo is to rural cowboys. Poker and bowling probably get higher ratings than either of them.

 

My answer to the original question is: yes.

1) It smells, and it ruins a good pair of shoes.

2) We can't talk about cowgirls that participate in pole-bending and keep a straight face. Cowboys for that matter, too.

3) There are twice as many high school kids who participate than track and field. All of them have parents that think they deserve constant coverage, including the queens.

4) Every time the District administrators alert us of a big event, our reporter was at first turned away because "nobody gets a free pass." We quit printing results and that got changed.

5) I cheer for the livestock to trample the people. Especially those fucking clowns. Writing those things might be frowned upon in the community.

6) Our former SE covered one event. He said he saw the shittiest travel trailer on the planet with a bumper sticker that read: "Don't laugh, your daughter might be in here."

We try our hardest to not cover rodeo. No high school. No JUCO. No locals that place nationally.

Our solution: None of the full-timers cover it. We refuse. We have one part-timer who loves rodeo and goes to the big events that would warrant some kind of coverage. It's utter crap for writing, but all these people want is for their names to get in the paper.

 

It's not so bad if you have a clue what you're doing. At my last stop, we would have two, maybe three rodeos come through the area in a typical year, which was fine. Except we didn't have much in the way of stringers, so one of us full-timers always got it.

Well, just so happens that one SportsJournalists.commer who I knew did some PR in rodeo on the side. So he knew the people and their stories, which helped give me ideas for features every day when I went to the rodeo. Usually he helped track the person down before he/she went to compete that night. Do the interview, transcribe the notes, write the feature and fill in the blanks with results from later that night to wrap it up.

By far not the worst assignment I ever had, and I dare say that I really liked a couple of the clips.

 

I am aware of that but I don't think Joe is when he predicted the PRB would be the death of the NPRA because a regional orgnaization like that will push forward. It's not a big budget deal. It's a passion for the members. The PRCA, meanwhile, is the one that fights battles, like facing the possible closing of its Hall of Fame, considering moving its HQ to Albuquerque and such.

 

The PBR gets higher ratings than the NHL.

Just saying.

 

Outside of NHL cities (and Canada and Minnesota), you'll find very little NHL coverage in most newspapers.