I began writing this column a month ago, and you, the fans have posted some very thought-provoking responses to the questions that I tack on the end of each article.

The column that received the most response was the April 30 piece on why I've enjoyed covering the Professional Bull Riders since its humble beginnings and how the association has consistently produced great story lines.

You were asked: What are some great stories and trends in the PBR for the media to cover?

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Harve started off like a ball of fire when he came on tour last year and then he got in a terrible slump and he couldn't ride anything, but he was riding everything. He had a bunch of 90-point rides right off the bat as soon as he got on tour last year and then he got in such a slump to where he couldn't ride a spinner.

He had to work his way back on tour.

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Before Friday night's show in Des Moines, Iowa, last weekend, I offered in-house announcer Brandon Bates $50 dollars if he would say, "Des Moinz, this is not a rodeo...!" He refused my cash, and rightly so, because it would have scarred his reputation for life. There just seems to be a lot of extra s's floating around in there. Of course, this is coming from a guy who lives in Choteau: pronounced Shodoe.

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Keep in mind these bulls don't have to show up every week. As a matter of fact, they're managed very well to where they only perform once every couple of weeks, at the very most. Their travel is very limited because the stock contractors don't want any stress of any kind on these bulls.

If they have a poor out, unlike a cowboy, then they're going to go back to the minor leagues and prove themselves again or gain some confidence.

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At the beginning of last week I thought, OK, I just won't get on any practice bulls in order to let the swelling go down so I would be ready to go in Des Moines. I called Tandy's office because he said something about wanting to get some x-rays.

He wanted to come in on Wednesday and whenever I showed to get the x-rays they said that my finger was pretty much broke in half and that I some more bones broke behind my knuckle, and that in order to fix it I would need to have surgery.

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Three things can happen with the race for the World Championship: somebody can just get on an incredible roll and in the next four events place in the Top 3, but anybody doing that besides Marchi is highly, highly unlikely.

Another thing would be to hope Marchi falls off all of his bulls at the Finals, but, once again, it's highly, highly unlikely and somebody would have to have a runaway Finals of their own.

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Since the Professional Bull Riders conducted its first season in 1994, the association regularly has produced great story lines.

The main reason for that is the PBR has capitalized on showcasing rodeo's headline event. The fierce battles between cowboys and bulls always makes for a great story.

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Well, the sports medicine room after the event in Chicago looked like Pierce and Hawkeye should have been around performing some sort of wartime operations. I know, that's a MASH reference. I'm an '80's guy.

Chris Shivers busted up his face and did not look pretty. Of course, all our best to him. Ednei and J.B. were both hobbled a bit, and everyone else was just sore. It's that time of year.

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I was looking forward to coming back this past weekend, but when I got on my first bull I wasn't as confident and not so sure I needed to be back. I guess after I actually got on the bull, I didn't feel 100 percent.

I felt like I was all there, but when I nodded I wasn't. As far as getting ready and the chute procedure, everything was great, but when I nodded, I don't know, it wasn't all there.

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It's been going good lately, but I want to win.

If you want to win bad enough you have to just go out there and do what it takes to win, and – honestly – fourth or fifth isn't winning first. Yeah, it's good, but at the end of the day the only guy you remember is the guy who won first and that happens to be Adriano and Dustin this weekend.

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