I’ll be meeting with the sports editors from the Associated Press

Hello to everyone in the cowboy nation,

I'm checking back in with you. I'm here at the ranch in Texas and we're having a great spring. Everything's going great with the cattle. I have all the cows and calves vaccinated and all worked this last week, and now I've just been helping the neighbors with getting their spring branding done.

Jewel and I are still getting caught up with everything else after being in California for so long. We're actually going to be going on vacation in a couple of weeks.

I think all of the guys on the Built Ford Tough Series are enjoying a little break to heal up and some others are enjoying the chance to go to some Challenger events to make up some ground there.

It was nice to see J.W. Hart officially retire and come out of his last bull ride unscathed.

I mentioned on my audio blog that I have a few things in the works as far as the ESPYS go and them not considering cowboys or bull riders. Well, the first thing that I'm doing is that June 27 I'll be going to Pittsburgh for an event with all the sports editors from the Associated Press.

They're going to give us 15 minutes to give a presentation about the PBR.

It's a really good opportunity because it allows me to get face-to-face with these people and try to help them understand more about our sport. Again, sometimes our sport is hard for people to relate to because they've never done it or tried it so they have some ignorance about it.

But this is where we can give a great presentation, show some video and talk about it directly to them and let them see they're missing the boat. It's just another one of those steps we have to take to try and influence people to see our sport as they would any other professional sport.

The thing I would like for you guys to do is send some letters and emails to ESPN. I put together a list of email addresses for all the ESPN radio programs:

Mike Greeny and Mike Golic at mikeandmike@espnradio.com, Colin Cowherd at theherd@espnradio.com, Mike Tirico and Scott Van Pelt at tiricoandvanpelt@espnradio.com, Doug Gottlieb at douggottlieb@espnradio.com, Brian Kinny at bk@espnradio.com, Bob Valvano at vshow@espnradio.com, John Seibel at gamenight@espnradio.com, Jason Smith at allnight@espnradio.com, and then John Kincade at jkshow@espnradio.com.

We need for all of you to write to these radio hosts and their producers, so that they know how many of us want to hear them talk about the PBR when they're on the air.

Likewise, you can also log onto www.sportscenter.com and leave messages for those hosts as well. Getting these shows to acknowledge us and talk about us is the first step in getting the recognition we deserve when it comes to the ESPYS.

Just give them your thoughts and opinions on what makes a cowboy such a great athlete.

I mean, when you're talking about the sport of rodeo and bull riding it's been around for 140 years, that's right, the first organized rodeo took place 140 years ago in Colorado.

And if you want to talk about the popularity of extreme sports, well, this is definitely the original extreme sport.

It just bums me out when you look at cowboys – not only how good they have to be physically, but also mentally – and we're talking about a sport that is so scary to learn how to do this craft at the highest level as an athlete, and to not have them acknowledged is sad.

When I was growing up I played football, baseball, basketball, wrestling, gymnastics and other sports that most kids play, but I never found anything that came close to challenging me the way this sport did, like I mentioned, both physically and mentally.

That's really what hooked me on it.

I think some letters will help and that's what we can start with and I'm going to give it my best shot when I speak in front of the Associated Press. Hopefully we can educate them and get them to check into our sport too.

So that's your mission for now, and I'm open for any ideas you guys might have, but just remember we're in this together.